Over the past year International Flavors and Fragrances has commercialized newly patented fragrance notes, acquired Fragrance Resources, and debuted the first fragrance certified Cradle to Cradle.
These initiatives, according to company CEO and chairman Andreas Fibig, “should provide [IFF] with opportunities to consistently grow our business in the future.”
The quarter
For the quarter ending December 30, 2016, IFF fragrance sales were up 1% in comparison with the same term last year on both a reported and currency neutral basis. In dollars, the reported sales for the quarter amount to $384.9m, having increased $3.5m over the previous year.
A drop in demand across the America region is to blame for a 6% decline in the IFF fine fragrance business in Q4 of 2016. Over the same period, fragrance ingredients were up 3% (only 2% in currency neutral terms), though like in fine fragrance, sales in EMAE made up for losses in the Americas.
The fragrance segment on the whole saw a 4% lift in profit, a figure that goes flat in a currency neutral scenario. The company press release about the results explains this away noting that input cost were high enough that IFF pricing and productivity couldn’t make up the difference.
The full year
For the year, IFF fragrance sales amount to $1.6bn, up 3% or $39.6m from the previous year. The company reports that on a currency neutral basis sales were up 4%, and that 2% of the lift can be directly attributed to the acquisition Lucas Meyer Cosmetics.
In fine fragrance, the company attributes a 2% drop to both the limited Latin American market and “the portfolio transition between two large customers within the category,” as the release describes it.
All the same, consumer fragrance was up 2% on a reported basis, fragrance ingredient sales rose by 9 percentage points, and profit for IFF’s fragrance segment rose 4% overall.