The new facility, which is attached to the group’s headquarters, will serve the company’s two primary business divisions – scent & care and flavour & nutrition - with the facility opening up for business at the end of last week.
The company says it has invested a total of €10m in the construction of the facility, which is part of an annual budget in research and development that currently runs at €100m.
An emphasis on functional ingredients
The facility covers four floors and over 2,400 square metres of space, housing around 90 employees, while the facilities includes conference rooms, in addition to the laboratory areas.
One particular emphasis of the facility will be the research and development of functional ingredients for the personal care and health nutrition area.
A particularly big trend in the skin care category has been the global growth of BB creams, multifunctional creams that target a host of different functions, which in turn has led to a spike in demand for ingredients that can meet these requirements.
Functional ingredients have become increasingly popular in recent years as consumers seek out products with a variety of properties to target a range of different needs, often in one product, BB creams being the best example.
Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Bertram, CEO of Symrise said that the facility would help meet consumer evolving needs that is constantly giving way to demand for new products, equipping it to develop innovative solutions as soon as possible.
“We cross-link our business units and pool our research activities. In this way, we realize interdisciplinary projects and can optimally make use of our competencies in the areas of fragrances, functional ingredients and flavors," he said.
Acquisition of Belmay
Last month Symrise confirmed that it had acquired US fragrance business Belmay as part of plans to extend its business footprint into the North America market.
The company said that it has bought the global operations of the business, which are concentrated on the development and manufacturing of fragrances and perfume oils.
Belmay’s operations are focused on the fine fragrance, personal care and air care segments, and Symrise says that the main motivation for the acquisition is the fact that the business portfolio will complement and strengthen its existing portfolio.