The Belgianchapter begins.

The eye serum that opens the Belgian chapter arrives this month. Behind it sit a pharmacy channel rebuilt after the 2022 pilot and a Belgian factory still to come.

Background

The Mazi Group was founded in Miami in 2019 by Robin Rouquart, who grew up in Ruiselede in West Flanders and had left Ghent the year before. The group built its business in the United States first: its own filling plant in Indianapolis, bulk production in Miami, an in-house laboratory, and volume distribution through American retail and e-commerce.

Belgium was not new territory. In 2022 Mazi Beauty ran a pilot in around sixty Belgian pharmacies. The products sold, but the group learned that a pilot without local production, local stock and local support is not a launch. The pilot was wound down rather than propped up.

What is happening

The group operates a Belgian chapter alongside its own filling plant in Indianapolis, Indiana, and its bulk production in Miami. A Belgian factory is still to come. Mazi Beauty returns to the Belgian pharmacy channel, this time with local supply behind it, and mazibeauty.be sells directly to the customer.

The first product of the Belgian chapter is LUR Red Algae, a reviving eye serum launching this month.

What it means

For customers, it means a product made in the country where it is sold. For the pharmacy channel, it means stock and support from the same time zone. For the region, Belgian production would mean manufacturing work in an industry that has spent two decades moving it elsewhere.

The group is deliberately going against the direction of travel. Most cosmetics businesses of this size outsource filling and move production toward lower costs. This one intends to do the opposite, in the country its founder left.