HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― Korea Kolmar, a South Korean cosmetics research and development firm, has seen robust sales growth in China as it has steadily increased its number of Chinese clients, company officials said Monday.

The company, which is known for being an original design manufacturer of cosmetics products, will likely break even in its China operations this year, largely thanks to a growing Chinese mass cosmetics market, said the officials at Korea Kolmar.

Korea Kolmar’s brand awareness has been rising among China’s local companies, adding 80 Chinese firms as clients last year.

The company officials expected that China sales growth will accelerate in 2012.

According to an estimate by Korea Investment and Securities Co., the South Korean cosmetics firm would likely have posted $1.29 million sales in China during the January-March period, up 75.8 percent on-year.

Korea Kolmar was also expected to have posted a total sales of $4.29 million sales during one year from April in 2011 through March 2012.

“We expect Kolmar’s sales from China to see a cumulative annual growth rate of 62.8 percent from 2011 through 2016,” said Lee Jung-in, an analyst at Korea Investment and Securities.

Korea Kolmar, founded in 1990, has cosmetics makers as its clients, including global firms such as L’Oreal and Johnson & Johnson as well as AmorePacific and LG Household & Health Care, both from South Korea.