Givaudan expands savoury flavour range with Swiss acquisition

17-Jan-2017 - Last updated on 17-Jan-2017 at 12:07 GMT

Swiss flavour giant Givaudan has acquired Activ International, a deal which it says will help widen its portfolio of natural meat, seafood and vegetable flavours.

Activ International, formerly known as Summit Hill Flavors, supplies natural and organic seafood and vegetable based flavours and marine extracts. Its European and Asian sites have also been developing natural colour compositions, and it supplies halal flavours for the south-east Asian market.

The firm is headquartered in Bienne, Switzerland but has operations in the US, Malaysia, France and Peru.

Gilles Andrier, CEO of Givaudan, said the acquisition would help the company widen its capabilities in natural meat, seafood and vegetable flavours.

Givaudan, which reported sales of CHF 4.4 billion (€4.1bn) in 2015, did not disclose financial details of the transaction but said Activ’s business would have represented approximately CHF 40 million (€37.3m) of incremental sales to its results in 2016 on a proforma basis.

The president of Givaudan’s flavour division, Mauricio Graber, said the acquisition came as consumers around the world increasingly demand more natural and organic products from food and beverage companies.

“The addition of Activ’s product portfolio further enables Givaudan to strengthen our extensive natural flavour offerings and provide customers with complete and competitive natural solutions.”

Activ International employs 170 people globally. Givaudan did not confirm whether there would be structural changes to staffing as a result of the acquisition.