Unilever USA President Herrish Patel speaks about the company’s planned innovation center in New Haven on May 28, 2026. Credit: Donald Eng / CTNewsJunkie
NEW HAVEN, CT — Multinational giant Unilever announced a $270 million global innovation center to house the company’s research and development for its personal care, beauty and wellbeing businesses in the U.S. and globally Thursday. The new center is expected to open at 2 College Street in New Haven in 2029.
The new facility will succeed the company’s existing R&D facility, which has operated in Trumbull since 1972, company officials said.
“New Haven gets us to the future faster,” said Unilever USA President Herrish Patel. Our Global Innovation Centre is where we’ll innovate at the intersection of science, technology and culture – for the U.S. and for the world. We will build on our deep heritage of innovation to develop the next generation of brands and products that people love.”
According to Unilever, 3.7 billion people worldwide, and 95% of U.S. households use Unilever products daily. The company’s product portfolio includes brands such as Dove, Pond’s, Vaseline, Hellman’s, Olly and dozens of others.
The center is expected to employ about 300 people.
Richard Slater, chief research and development officer, speaks about Unilever’s plans for an innovation center in New Haven on Credit: Donald Eng / CTNewsJunkie
“Behind every Unilever product is a world-leading science that delivers superior performance, combined with design, fragrance and sensory experiences that make our brands distinctive,” said Richard Slater, chief research and development officer. “The real shift here is integration and speed: science, design and sensorials working as one, with AI and partnerships accelerating every stage of innovation.”
Specific capabilities to be housed at the center include:
Global centre for skin care and cleansing, anchoring the site and powering the future of Unilever’s skin care and cleansing business;
Polycultural skin and hair centre of excellence, specialising in creating ingredients and products that address the unmet needs of millions of consumers;
Human performance lab, generating unprecedented new data and insights into human physiology, enabling on-site testing of ingestibles;
Unilever Fragrance House, with perfumists, chemists and packaging designers working together from the earliest stages of development;
Packaging innovation studio, incorporating real-time consumer feedback to accelerate the development of prototypes that perform across physical and digital shelves.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the company’s decision to invest in New Haven reaffirmed Connecticut’s reputation as a leader in innovation, research and development.
“I am glad we have Unilever as a valued member of Connecticut’s growing business community, and I look forward to this company continuing to succeed here for many years to come,” he said.