Geneva, Switzerland
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Geneva, Switzerland
2021 Sales: CHF 6,684 million
Givaudan sees its 2025 strategy as a guide to how it will deliver sustainable value creation for all stakeholders and allow it to act as a force for good in the world.
The words “significant” and “strong” are used by Givaudan to summarize its performance in 2021—significant because it was the first year of the company’s new five-year strategy cycle, Committed to Growth with Purpose, and strong because of its financial showing and continuing to make progress in its purpose targets while managing yet another pandemic year.
The industry leader’s 2025 strategy is to shape the future of food, fragrances and beauty by becoming the innovation and co-creation partner of choice for its customers, a strategy the company says builds on past achievements and reflects continuing global megatrends and rapidly changing consumer behaviors. It adds that customers remain at the heart of the strategy, which continues with ambitious financial targets, but for the first time includes non-financial targets.
These non-financial targets are aligned to Givaudan’s purpose ambitions in the areas of creations, nature, people and communities. They include doubling the business through creations that contribute to happier, healthier lives by 2030, becoming climate positive before 2050, becoming a leading employer for inclusion before 2025 and sourcing all materials and services in a way that protects the environment and people by 2030.
The company sees its 2025 strategy as a guide to how it will deliver sustainable value creation for all stakeholders and allow it to act as a force for good in the world. At the end of 2021, it said its resilience as a successful business was demonstrated in the previous 12 months, during which it continued to prioritize the health and wellbeing of employees and ensure delivery for customers.
Underpinning the strategy ambitions are no fewer than 20 acquisitions in the past eight years that have taken Givaudan beyond its traditional fields of flavors and fragrances and into nutrition, health and wellbeing and beauty. Alongside this shift, the general expectations of society have moved towards more responsible consumption that is reflected in consumer demand for products that make them feel good and do good.
Givaudan’s articulation of its purpose and ambitions to increase its positive impact on people, society and the planet reflects a shift towards a more purposeful society—factors that played a part in the development by the company of a new brand identity, Human by Nature, unveiled earlier this year and discussed later in this article.
Business Accomplishments
Givaudan implements its current strategy through acquisitions, investments in production capabilities and innovation efforts, all of which help create value and positive impact for the company’s stakeholders, the economy, environment and society overall. In 2021 and into 2022, highlights have included enhancing fragrance capabilities in high-growth markets, for example, by announcing a joint venture agreement with Privi Speciality Chemicals for a production plant near Mumbai in India for fragrance speciality ingredients, and a CHF 75 million investment to expand fragrance production at Pedro Escobedo in Mexico.
Givaudan’s global protein innovation network was strengthened with the opening of two protein innovation centers to support its ambitions in co-creating plant-based food experiences that do good and feel good. The facilities, in Singapore and at the Zurich Innovation Center, are in partnership with Bühler and will provide further opportunities with customers, start-ups and partners to co-create for the future of sustainable food in a world where many consumers are seeking plant-based options for health and ethical reasons.
A further achievement during the year was the expansion of efforts to engage with others to accelerate sustainable change. The company joined WBCSD to launch Vision 2050: Time to Transform, which provides ambitious guidance to the business community on how to accelerate change, and Together for Sustainability, a global sector supply chain initiative to assess, audit and improve supply chain sustainability practices.
The company continued on its acquisition trail with the purchase of 25% of B.Kolormakeup & Skincare of Italy (b.kolor) to expand its offerings for customers in the consumer-packaged goods and luxury segments; Myrissi of France gives Givaudan the technology to translate fragrances into color patterns and images; DDW, The Color House, a U.S.-based natural color company, strengthens its ability to create with customers a range of multi-sensorial food experiences; and the U.S.-based fragrance creation house Custom Essence boosts Givaudan’s access to local and regional customers, as well as expanding its capabilities in natural perfumes. Earlier this year, as part of its 2025 strategy to expand the capabilities of its fast-growing Active Beauty business, Givaudan acquired a 48% stake in Nanovetores Group from the Criatec Fund, a Brazilian investment fund focused on innovative, early-stage companies.
And in expanding opportunities in China, the company announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with Tmall, Alibaba’s open business-to-consumer platform; the T-Lab source innovation laboratory is to be launched to leverage Givaudan’s creative fragrance solutions and production capabilities in China, and the enterprise will be powered by Tmall's consumer behavior data. Also in China, and as part of its long-term strategy to expand digital capabilities, Givaudan opened a new digital space at its site in Shanghai to support growth with local and regional customers; it offers co-creation spaces for customers in Taste & Wellbeing, as well as Fragrance & Beauty.
To build further transparency across supply chains, Givaudan strengthened and expanded its responsible sourcing program to launch Sourcing4Good, which is based on collaboration and knowledge sharing, experience and expert input from suppliers, customers and partners (for more on Sourcing4Good, see Perfumer & Flavorist+, Vol 46, no. 7, p. 33, July 2021).
For the full article, please check out the Perfumer & Flavorist+ July 2022 issue.
