Every day, as consumers around the world open a bottle of hyaluronic acid mist, apply a sheet mask, or use a collagen serum, few realize the journey of these products might begin in a single factory in Jinan, Shandong Province.

At the Jinan Zhimei Innovation Park, a 44,000-square-meter production space houses robotic arms, AI-powered visual inspection equipment, and digital management systems working in concert. A single sheet mask production line completes one production cycle every 0.4 seconds. What once relied on manual experience is now being reorganized by data and machines. This facility produces more than just skincare; it represents a strategic recalibration of manufacturing by a Chinese beauty company competing in the global marketplace.

The factory belongs to Shandong Freda Biotech Co., Ltd. As a company that transitioned from the pharmaceutical sector into beauty, Freda’s challenges extend beyond developing new ingredients or launching brands. The core issue is delivering products to consumers faster and more reliably amidst rapidly shifting preferences and intensifying competition.

"Smart manufacturing is not simply about replacing manual labor; it's about making the process more precise and stable," said Wang Wei, deputy general manager of Shandong Freda Biotech Co., Ltd. Currently, the automation rate for Freda's key processes stands at 98%. By integrating systems like ERP, SRM, MES, WMS, and OMS, the company connects R&D, procurement, production, warehousing, and sales, achieving fully digitalized management across its operations. Wang noted that post-upgrade, production efficiency has risen by 16%, while cost per unit has dropped by over 8%.

For beauty products often priced at just a few dozen yuan or less, even slight production efficiencies become magnified at scale. Freda's cosmetics division generated 2.246 billion yuan in revenue in 2025, supported by 35 automated production lines with an annual capacity of about 25,000 tons. The operation can produce up to 1.8 million sheet masks and 900,000 unit-dose products daily. When a product reaches tens of millions or even hundreds of millions in sales volume, manufacturing efficiency transcends internal factory concerns, directly impacting the company's agility in responding to market shifts.

Freda's story began with a single gram of hyaluronic acid. In 1998, leveraging its pharmaceutical research on hyaluronic acid, Freda introduced the ingredient into skincare, helping move it from a primarily medical application into the mass consumer market. Previously, high production costs and limited uses kept hyaluronic acid confined to healthcare. By overcoming production bottlenecks with microbial fermentation technology and lowering costs, Freda helped this component transition from specialized use to everyday skincare routines.

This evolution reflects a broader change across China's beauty supply chain. Once, key skincare ingredients were largely controlled by international firms; now, Chinese companies are entering global markets through their own raw material R&D and manufacturing capabilities. As the world's largest producer of hyaluronic acid raw materials, China accounted for over 82% of global output in 2025, with exports reaching $3.42 billion, up 12.7% year-over-year.

This pathway of "technology entering consumer markets" continues. Collagen, vital for skin firmness, has long posed a dilemma for the skincare industry: injections carry risks, while topical application fails to absorb because the molecule is too large to penetrate, leaving it on the surface without genuine anti-aging effects. The idea that "topical collagen fights aging" was long considered a myth by many in the industry. As the collagen skincare trend grew, so did the skepticism.

Facing this debate, Freda's KEMI brand chose innovation over explanation. Despite initial doubts, the team focused on one core problem: how to make collagen truly penetrate the skin barrier. The result was two key breakthroughs: recombinant humanized type III collagen, which matches the structure of human collagen to address safety and compatibility at the source, and a patented transmembrane collagen delivery technology that overcomes the skin barrier, achieving 27.5 times higher subcutaneous penetration over 24 hours compared to standard recombinant type III collagen. These advances turned collagen from a superficial application into a genuinely absorbable anti-aging ingredient.

The transmembrane collagen unit-dose product has sold over 50 million units and topped Douyin's "collagen anti-aging unit-dose" category in its first year. "We are always focused on how to translate basic research into products consumers can actually use," said Gao Chunming, chairman and general manager of Freda. He cited the company's recent "287" product line as an example, which explores new skin repair applications by screening substances fermented from the 287th strain of Staphylococcus epidermidis.

From hyaluronic acid to recombinant collagen and now royal jelly acid, Freda continuously works to turn lab technology into market-ready products. The company holds 206 authorized patents and has led or participated in setting 7 national standards, 1 industry standard, and 30 association standards. Its VITNAL brand's hyaluronic acid mist has sold over 240 million units, while the KEMI brand, launched in 2024 around recombinant collagen, has seen its collagen unit-dose product sales exceed 50 million units.

Freda is now working to convert its manufacturing strength into brand equity. On the production side, the company has established a digital framework covering R&D, manufacturing, and quality management. Every batch has a complete traceability record, managing the entire journey from raw material testing to finished product shipment. "In the past, we focused on producing a product; now we need to focus on the entire process from R&D to consumer use," Wang Wei said, noting that this shift is redefining beauty manufacturing.

From the Jinan workshop to dressing tables worldwide, this production line tracks more than just the distance products travel. It also maps a Chinese beauty company's evolving understanding of manufacturing capability in the face of global competition.