Beiersdorf is on a mission to minimize its environmental footprint, following a fourfold approach in the search for innovative ways to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Replace” plastic packaging across its brand portfolio. The German beauty giant is joining the refill revolution with its first refill station prototype for Nivea shower gel in select DM stores in Hamburg and Ettlingen.

“The procedure is very simple,” explains Marta Suslow, Packaging Specialist at Beiersdorf. “Consumers take an empty plastic bottle from the station and fill it with the product of their choice—in other words, the Nivea Creme Soft or the Nivea Creme Sensitive shower gel. Payment is made using the printed label. To refill the bottle, the container is brought back to the store by the consumer. The plastic bottles can be refilled up to three times using the special barcode. After the third refill, the customer is then asked to hand in the old bottle at the checkout for hygiene reasons so that it can be recycled. In return, they will receive a new bottle and a first filling for free.”

The machine was designed, developed, and engineered by a cross-functional team within Beiersdorf’s global packaging and R&D departments. The team worked for six months to solve safety, microbiology, and user-friendliness issues in order to get the station market-ready. This trial will allow the brand to optimize the existing concept in order to roll it out more widely.

“We see the concept as a start for offering consumers individual products in the future that match their own wishes right in the store. We still need to work out in detail what exactly that might look like. The fact is, however, that we not only want to become more sustainable with our measures, but also offer our consumers added value,” adds Caroline Zia, R&D Senior Engineer at Beiersdorf.

Beiersdorf’s focus is to reduce the amount of plastics the company places on the market annually.