Unknown lord of fragrances

In German-speaking Switzerland, Firmenich is almost unknown to anyone. The Geneva family business is in the process of becoming the world’s largest producer of fragrances and aromas. The group is already one of the heavyweights in the perfume industry. Firmenich can look back on over 100 years of company history and even won the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on artificial musk.

A merger with Dutch DSM, the world leader in food additives, will soon follow. The number of employees increases from 11,000 to 28,000. With the merger, Firmenich should eventually be recognized by more German-speaking Swiss. Not only because of its size, but also because of the relocation of the headquarters from Lake Geneva to Kaiseraugst AG.

It is feared that the Geneva region will lose. The company is trying to address these concerns. For example, new fragrances and flavors will be studied in the future at three production facilities with adjacent laboratories, thanks to the 200 million Swiss-franc campus opened in the Geneva suburb of Satigny on Tuesday. On the occasion of the campus opening, Blick met with Firmenich CEO Gilbert Ghostine (62) for an interview.

Blick: We had to go through security to get into your office. What secrets are you guarding?
Gilbert Ghostine: We are a science-based industry that invests over CHF 400 million in research and development each year. Many of the technologies these walls contain are not yet patented. We do not want our competitors to reach the fruits of our labor before they are protected.

They assure that DSM-Firmenich will remain in Switzerland even after the merger and that the business will be protected. This sounds like whitewash!
We talk to each other as we inaugurate our brand new campus for the creation of scents, flavors and ingredients. To ensure our competitiveness, we have invested CHF 200 million in state-of-the-art labs for digitization and artificial intelligence in Geneva that meet the strictest sustainability criteria. Does this really sound like whitewash?

At the end of June 2023, the new asset will be listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and investors are looking for returns. How can you be so sure that nothing will migrate?
It can be me because the Firmenich family will own 34.5 percent of the shares in the new company and will be involved in this partnership in the long run. Our global perfumery, ingredients and food research, as well as our perfumery and beauty business, will be managed from Geneva and the three factories will remain here. Only a few management positions were affected as the new company was headquartered in Kaiseraugst in the canton of Aargau.

But you are also concerned about the attractiveness of Switzerland as a location. What are other countries doing better?
For five years, French President Emmanuel Macron has been actively supporting the country’s economy as part of the “Choose France” project at the Palace of Versailles. This summer, it invited 180 foreign corporate bosses and 70 bosses from French big companies and unicorns (new companies with a market value of over a billion, editor’s note). Singapore does this three times a year. Therefore, we need to maintain our framework conditions and at the same time develop our strengths more actively. We live in an extremely competitive world.

The UN Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been placing our country ahead of the USA as the most innovative country in the world for 12 years. How did this little miracle come about?
Switzerland is lucky to be a small country. If Firmenich ranks as one of the 100 most innovative companies in the world, along with giants like Google, it’s because we’re close to all resources and work closely with our partners. We cooperate with the University of Geneva and ETH Lausanne, which allows us to create a strong ecosystem. By the way, this is also why Geneva is Silicon Valley in perfumery.

What could happen to Switzerland with these strengths?
In such a rapidly changing world, one cannot rely on one’s laurels. You can’t just be good, you have to be exceptional. We are leaders in innovation and we should be in digitalization as well. This is a responsibility shared by political and business leaders. We have to be the best to attract the best talent. This is what will ensure the prosperity of our country.

Which countries are the role models we should follow?
I was lucky to have lived in Singapore for six years and was amazed by the dynamism of this small country. What Israel has done in terms of innovation, science and digitization is also impressive.