Symrise AG is a German chemicals company that is a major producer of flavours and

fragrance An aroma compound, also known as an odorant, aroma, fragrance, flavoring or flavor, is a chemical compound that has a smell or odor. For an individual chemical or class of chemical compounds to impart a smell or fragrance, it must be sufficien ...

s with sales of €4.999 billion i
2024
Major competitors include

Givaudan Givaudan S.A. () is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of flavours, fragrances and active cosmetic ingredients. As of 2008, it was the world's largest company in the flavour and fragrance industry. Overview The company's scents and flavours ...

Takasago International Corporation is a major international producer of flavours and fragrances headquartered in Japan, with presence in 27 countries and regions worldwide. Takasago ranked 8th overall and 1st in Asia on the Global Top Food Flavours and Fragrances Companies list ...

International Flavors and Fragrances International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF) is an American corporation that creates products across taste, texture, scent, nutrition, enzymes, cultures, soy proteins, and probiotics categories, which it markets globally. It is headquartered in ...

and Döhler. Symrise is a member of the

European Flavour Association European Flavour Association (EFFA) is a non-profit European-level trade association of the flavor industry, based in Brussels, Belgium. Founded in 1961, the organisation originally focused on both flavours and fragrances, but has focused solely ...

. In 2021, Symrise was ranked 4th by FoodTalks' Global Top 50 Food Flavours and Fragrances Companies list.

History

Symrise was founded in 2003 by the merger of

Bayer Bayer AG (English: , commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer' ...

subsidiary Haarmann & Reimer (H&R) and Dragoco, both based in Holzminden, Germany.

Haarman & Reimer

Haarman & Reimer (H&R) was founded in 1874 by chemists Ferdinand Tiemann and

Wilhelm Haarmann Gustav Ludwig Friedrich Wilhelm Haarmann (24 May 1847 – 6 March 1931) was a German chemist and together with Karl Reimer and Ferdinand Tiemann as scientific consultant founded the Haarmann & Reimer chemical plant for the production of vanillin. ...

after they succeeded in first synthesizing

vanillin Vanillin is an organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a phenolic aldehyde. Its functional groups include aldehyde, hydroxyl, and ether. It is the primary component of the ethanolic extract of the vanilla bean. Synthetic vanillin ...

from

coniferin Coniferin is a glucoside of coniferyl alcohol. This white crystalline solid is a metabolite in conifers, serving as an intermediate in cell wall lignification, as well as having other biological roles. It can also be found in the water root extrac ...

. Holzminden was the site where vanillin was first produced industrially. In 1917, H&R supported

Leopold Ružička Leopold Ružička (; born Lavoslav Stjepan Ružička; 13 September 1887 – 26 September 1976) was a Croatian-Swiss scientist and joint winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes" "including ...

's unsuccessful three-year project to synthesize

irone Irones are a group of methylionone odorants used in perfumery, derived from iris oil,Council of Europe, August 2007 e.g. orris root. The most commercially important of these are: * (−)-''cis''-γ-irone, and * (−)-''cis''-α-irone Irones f ...

, a fragrance of violets. In 1953, H&R was acquired by Bayer.

Dragoco

Dragoco was founded in 1919 by Carl-Wilhelm Gerberding and his cousin August Bellmer. Horst-Otto Gerberding, majority holder and Chairman of the Executive Board at Dragoco, placed all of his shares into the new Syrmise corporation and the merger was completed May 23, 2003.

History since 2003

In April 2005, Symrise acquired Flavours Direct, a UK-based manufacturer of compounded flavours and seasonings. In January 2006, Symrise acquired

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

based Kaden Biochemicals GmbH, a producer of specialty botanical extracts. In November 2006, Symrise announced plans to sell shares worth €650 million in an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

. The firm also announced that its main shareholders, including EQT, would also sell shares worth an unspecified amount. The IPO would leave well above 50% of Symrise shares in

free-float In the context of stock markets, the public float or free float represents the portion of Share (finance), shares of a corporation that are in the hands of public investors as opposed to locked-in shares held by promoters, company officers, control ...

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...

and

UBS UBS Group AG (stylized simply as UBS) is a multinational investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland, with headquarters in both Zurich and Basel. It holds a strong foothold in all major financial centres as the ...

conducted the listing on December 11, 2006. Symrise was listed on the

Frankfurt Stock Exchange The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (, former German name: , ''FWB'') is the world's 3rd oldest and 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. It has operations from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm ( German time). Organisation Located in Frankfurt, ...

with the trading symbol SY1. With 81,030,358 shares issued at an issue price of €17.25 for a total volume of €1.4 billion, it was the largest German public offering of 2006. On 19 March 2007, Symrise was added to the German

MDAX The MDAX is a stock index which lists German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The index is calculated by . It includes the 50 Prime Standard shares that rank in size immediately below the companies included in the DAX index. T ...

stock index. In March 2013, Symrise acquired US-owned fragrance manufacturer Belmay Fragrances for an undisclosed sum. On 12 April 2014, Symrise had announced the acquisition of Diana Group one of the leading manufacturers of natural flavours and the global number 1 for pet food solutions. The transaction was closed on July 29, 2014, and valued at around EUR 1.3 billion of equity and debt. In November 2020, Symrise announced its purchase agreement with Sensient Technologies Corporation, to acquire its fragrance and aroma business.

Key figures

World market share of the relevant fragrance and flavor market (2015) Source:Flavor & Fragrance Industry Leaders
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References

External links

* {{Authority control Flavor companies Fragrance companies Chemical companies of Germany Companies based in Saxony Food and drink companies of Germany Cosmetics companies of Germany Companies formerly in the MDAX Companies in the DAX index Companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange