Givaudan, the giant Swiss perfumes and flavours maker, intends to reinforce its development and production capabilities of naturals for fragrances through the acquisition of French fragrance creation house Expressions Parfumées. The two companies announced today that they have entered into exclusive negotiations.

Founded in 1982, Expressions Parfumées is based in Grasse (France), the historic area of perfumery, and also operates throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The company employs about 200 people globally. Expressions Parfumées is the first perfume composition house to have obtained the French Origin Guaranteed label. As the pioneer of natural fragrance compounds, Expressions Parfumées offers its NATCO® range of perfumes designed to adapt to any production labelled ‘organic’.

Acquiring Expressions Parfumées will fit nicely with our 2020 strategy to expand our presence with local and regional customers, and grow our capabilities in natural ingredients. Next year marks Givaudan’s 250 years of heritage deeply rooted in Grasse with distinguished perfumery dynasties such as Roure and Chiris. This acquisition will be a wonderful way to come back to our origins in Grasse, a region that has always been close to our hearts and our history,” explains Gilles Andrier, CEO of Givaudan.

While terms of the deal will not be disclosed, Expressions Parfumées’ business would have represented approximately EUR 56.6 millions of incremental sales to Givaudan’s results in 2016 on a proforma basis.

Expressions Parfumées will bring to Givaudan a true expertise in managing the fast growing segment of smaller customers. We will also enrich our respective palettes of ingredients, where they will bring additional expertise in naturals while Givaudan will share its large number of exclusive molecules and technologies,” added Maurizio Volpi, President of Givaudan’s Fragrance Division.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2018.