International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (‘IFF’), together with its subsidiaries, creates and manufactures food, beverage, health & biosciences, scent and pharma solutions and complementary adjacent products, including natural health ingredients, which are used in a wide variety of consumer products.
The company’s products are sold principally to manufacturers of dairy, meat, beverages, snacks, savory, sweet, baked goods, grain processors, and other foods, personal care products, soaps and deter...
International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (‘IFF’), together with its subsidiaries, creates and manufactures food, beverage, health & biosciences, scent and pharma solutions and complementary adjacent products, including natural health ingredients, which are used in a wide variety of consumer products.
The company’s products are sold principally to manufacturers of dairy, meat, beverages, snacks, savory, sweet, baked goods, grain processors, and other foods, personal care products, soaps and detergents, cleaning products, perfumes, dietary supplements, food protection, infant, elderly, and animal nutrition, functional food, pharmaceutical, and oral care products. As a result, the company holds global leadership positions in the Food & Beverage, Home & Personal Care, and Health & Wellness markets, and across key Tastes, Textures, Scents, Nutrition, Enzymes, Cultures, Soy Proteins, Pharmaceutical Excipients, and Probiotics categories.
The company’s business is geographically diverse, with sales in the U.S. representing approximately 28% of sales in 2024.
Product Offerings
As of December 31, 2024, the company’s business consisted of four segments: Nourish, Health & Biosciences, Scent, and Pharma Solutions.
Nourish
As a leading creator of ingredients and solutions, the company helps its customers deliver on the promise of healthy and delicious foods and drinks that appeal to consumers. The company creates products in its regional creative centers, which allows it to satisfy local customer preferences, while also helping to ensure regulatory compliance and production standards. The company develops thousands of different Nourish offerings, most of which are tailor-made, and it continually develops new ingredients and solutions to meet changing consumer preferences and customer needs.
The company’s Nourish segment consists of an innovative and broad portfolio of natural-based ingredients to enhance nutritional value, texture, and functionality in a wide range of beverage, dairy, bakery, confectionery, and culinary applications, and consists of Ingredients and Flavors.
Ingredients include a diversified portfolio across natural and plant-based specialty food ingredients derived from herbs and plants that provide texturizing solutions used in the food industry, food protection solutions used in food and beverage products, as well as specialty soy and pea protein with value-added formulations, emulsifiers, and sweeteners. Natural food protection ingredients consist of natural antioxidants and anti-microbials used for natural food preservation and shelf-life extension for beverages, cosmetic and healthcare products, pet food, and feed additives.
Ingredients also include savory solutions (such as spices, marinades, mixtures) and inclusion products (such as products combining flavorings with fruit, vegetables, and other natural ingredients), formerly part of Food Designs.
Flavors include a range of flavor compounds and natural taste solutions that are ultimately used by the company’s customers in savory products (soups, sauces, meat, fish, poultry, snacks, etc.), beverages (juice drinks, carbonated or flavored beverages, spirits, etc.), sweets (bakery products, candy, cereal, chewing gum, etc.), and dairy products (yogurt, ice cream, cheese, etc.). Flavors also include value-added spices and seasoning ingredients for meat, food service, convenience, alternative protein, and culinary products.
Health & Biosciences
The company’s Health & Biosciences segment consists of the development and production of an advanced biotechnology-derived portfolio of enzymes, food cultures, probiotics, and specialty ingredients for food and non-food applications. Among many other applications, this biotechnology-driven portfolio includes cultures for use in fermented foods, such as yogurt, cheese, and fermented beverages, probiotic strains, many with documented clinical health claims for use as dietary supplements, and through industrial fermentation, the production of enzymes and microorganisms that provide product and process performance benefits to household detergents, animal feed, ethanol production, and brewing. Health & Biosciences consists of Health, Cultures & Food Enzymes, Home & Personal Care, Animal Nutrition, and Grain Processing.
Health provides ingredients for dietary supplements, functional food and beverage, specialized nutrition, and pharma.
Cultures & Food Enzymes provide products that aim to serve the global demand for healthy, natural, clean label, and fermented food for fresh dairy, cheese, bakery, and brewing products. Such products contribute to extended shelf life, stability, taste, and texture, helping the company’s customers to improve their product offerings. The company’s enzyme solutions also allow its customers to provide low sugar, high fiber, and lactose-free dairy products.
Home & Personal Care produces enzymes for laundry and dishwashing detergents, cleaning, and textiles to help enhance the product and process performance of products in the fabric and home care, textiles, and industrials, as well as personal care markets. The business also produces patented enzymatic polymers that are renewable, biodegradable alternatives to functional ingredients used in home cleaning and beauty care products.
Animal Nutrition produces feed enzymes and animal health solutions that help to improve nutrition, welfare, performance, and sustainability of livestock animal farming.
Grain Processing produces yeasts and enzymes for biofuel production and carbohydrate processing.
Scent
The company’s Scent segment creates fragrance compounds and fragrance ingredients that are integral elements in the world’s finest perfumes and best-known household and personal care products. Consumer insights, science, and creativity are at the heart of the company’s Scent business, and, along with its unique portfolio of natural and synthetic ingredients, global footprint, innovative technologies and know-how, and customer intimacy, make it a market leader in scent products. The Scent segment consists of Fragrance Compounds and Fragrance Ingredients. The company completed the divestiture of its Cosmetic Ingredients business, previously within the Scent segment, on April 2, 2024.
Fragrance Compounds are unique and proprietary combinations of multiple fragrance ingredients that are ultimately used by the company’s customers in their consumer goods. The company’s creative and commercial teams within fragrance compounds are organized into two broad categories: fine fragrances and consumer fragrances.
The company’s perfumers harness creativity and leverage its innovative captive molecules, sustainable natural ingredients obtained with innovative processes, biotech ingredients, data science, and consumer insights to create unique and inspiring fragrances driving consumer preferences.
The company’s fine fragrances focus on perfumes and colognes, creating global and local namesake brands, from high luxury to mass market, from market-leading to ultra-niche products.
The company’s consumer fragrances include three end-use categories of products:
Fabric Care, including laundry detergents, fabric softeners, and specialty laundry products;
Home Care, including household cleaners, dishwashing detergents, and air fresheners; and
Body Care, including personal wash, hair care, and toiletries products.
Fragrance Ingredients are natural and synthetic, and active and functional ingredients that are used internally and sold to third parties, including competitors, for use in the preparation of compounds. While the principal role of the company’s fragrance ingredients facilities is to support its fragrance compounds business, it utilizes excess manufacturing capacity to manufacture and sell certain fragrance ingredients to third parties, enabling it to leverage its fixed costs while maintaining the security of its supply for its perfumers and ultimately its customers.
Pharma Solutions
The company’s Pharma Solutions segment produces, among other things, a vast portfolio of cellulosics and seaweed-based pharmaceutical excipients, used to improve the functionality and delivery of active pharmaceutical ingredients, including controlled or modified drug release formulations, and enabling the development of more effective pharmaceutical finished dosage formulations. The company’s excipients are used in prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and dietary supplements. The company’s Pharma Solutions products also serve a variety of other specialty and industrial end-uses, including coatings, inks, electronics, agriculture, and consumer products.
Customer
During 2024, the company’s 25 largest customers, a majority of which were multi-national consumer products companies, collectively accounted for approximately 33% of its sales in the aggregate.
Research and Development (R&D)
The company’s research and development expenses increased to $671 million (5.8% of sales) in 2024.
Intellectual Property
As of December 31, 2024, the company had 894 granted U.S. patents, and 458 pending U.S. patent applications, as well as thousands of other granted patents and pending patent applications around the world.
Manufacturing and Distribution
As of December 31, 2024, the company had approximately 150 manufacturing facilities, creative centers, and application laboratories located in approximately 40 different countries. The company’s major manufacturing facilities are located in the United States, The Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Slovenia, China, India, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, and Singapore.
Governmental Regulation
The company’s products and operations are subject to regulation by governmental agencies in each of the markets in which it operates. These agencies include the Food and Drug Administration and equivalent international agencies that regulate flavors, pharmaceutical excipients, and other ingredients in consumer products, the Environmental Protection Agency and equivalent international agencies that regulate its manufacturing facilities, as well as fragrance products (including encapsulation systems), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and equivalent international agencies that regulate the working conditions in its manufacturing, research laboratories, and creative centers, local and international agencies that regulate trade and customs, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other local or international agencies that regulate controlled chemicals that the company uses in its operations, the Chemical Registration/Notification authorities that regulate chemicals that the company uses in, or transports to, the various countries in which it manufactures and/or markets its products, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture and equivalent international authorities with respect to, among other things, labeling of consumer products. The company has seen an increase in registration and reporting requirements concerning the use of certain chemicals in a number of countries, such as Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (‘REACH’) regulations in the European Union, as well as similar regulations in other countries.
Competition
The company’s main competitors consist of other large global companies, such as Givaudan, DSM-Firmenich, Symrise, Kerry, ADM, and Novonesis.
Occupational Health & Safety
The company’s safety management system is based on the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (‘OSHA’) standards, which apply to all of its sites in conjunction with any local regulations.
History
International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. was incorporated in 1909.