Givaudan, one of the world’s biggest fragrance manufacturers, whose noses are responsible for hits like Carolina Herrera’s Good Girl, is figuring out what its growth engine will be in a climate where perfumes are suddenly not white-hot anymore.
“[In the US], I don’t see the same level of growth I had seen in the past, but I see growth in terms of value and in numbers of units,” said Xavier Renard, Givaudan’s head of fine fragrances. According to Circana, prestige fragrance sales grew 6 percent in the first half of the year, outpaced by mass sales and driven mostly by new launches. But its status as the fastest growing category in beauty is under siege.
On Wednesday, Givaudan released its second-quarter earnings alongside a 2030 strategy plan that affirmed its commitment to remaining the world’s fastest growing fragrance company, as well increasing its investment in adjacent categories.
It was also announced that chief executive Gilles Andrier, who has held the CEO post for two decades, would retire in March 2026 and be succeeded by Christian Stammkoetter, currently president of Asia, the Middle East and Africa at Danone.
In its next five year cycle, Givaudan plans to grow its sales between 4 and 6 percent by expanding its geographic presence — especially in South Asia’s growth markets — alongside its customer base and brand portfolio — by pressing into newer categories like skincare, makeup and pet food. Givaudan’s core fragrance business continues to outperform: Sales grew 18 percent in the first half of the year, and over the last ten years, the company’s size has nearly doubled after 12 acquisitions of smaller local competitors.
Now the company is staring down a more challenging five year period, which has already seen sales in traditionally resilient categories like fragrance begin to decelerate in the heat of geopolitical tension, trade disputes and consumer fatigue.
“I’m a very optimistic and positive person, so I am not worried,” Renard said. But compared to the first half of the decade, 2025 is already turning out to be “a different situation.”
Fine Fragrance: Full Spritz Ahead
As one of the biggest perfume houses in the world, Givaudan is synonymous with its fine fragrance business, and its fragrance and beauty division has historically contributed about half of the group’s overall sales. .
With 2024 group sales of around $9.2 billion, the company sits right between competitors like DSM-Firmenich ($14.9 billion) and Symrise ($5.8 billion), but has eclipsed both in its sales growth, and in other areas, too: Givaudan has the deepest bench of perfumers, with 42, compared to 30 at DSM-Firmenich, whose noses are responsible for scents like Acqua di Gio, Thierry Mugler Angel and Nicki Minaj Pink Friday.
But Givaudan’s continued growth, especially in the face of a fragrance slowdown, relies on innovation. Premium fragrance brands are now tasked with proving their value and uniqueness in a new way, as so-called “niche” scents with expensive formulas and esoteric notes have gone relatively mass. Renard recalled a recent trade show for niche perfumery as “overcrowded.” “It doesn’t mean that niche brands are going to go away, but it means that consumers will still go for the brands that they believe bring value and differentiation,” he said.
That value will come from investments in more perfumers and better ingredients, Renard said, as well as marketing and development to build strong pillar scents. Renard offered the example of Carolina Herrera’s Good Girl: The Givaudan-nosed fragrance, produced by Puig, became the number one perfume in the world in 2025, and continues to be refracted through new launches, like Good Girl Colormania, Good Girl Bowtastic and Good Girl Blush Tweed Talk in the last year alone. “They’ve animated the brand so well,” Renard said. “It’s fantastic to see how many different flankers they have today.”
“Someone said to me once, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,’” Renard added. “We don’t want the ride that we’ve been on over the last five years to stop all of a sudden.”
Active Beauty: More Makeup and Skincare
For the first time in the company’s 200-plus year history, it’s also turning to relatively new categories for Givaudan, like makeup and skincare.
Markus Rassmann, global head of Active Beauty, jokes that his division is a teenager. The unit was established in 2014, but has grown quickly thanks to Givaudan’s acquisition of biotech firms and ingredient developers over the past decade. This has helped produce technologies like Evernityl, an anti-ager made from macroalgae, or Spherulite HA Ultimate, a topical hyaluronic acid for lip hydration.
In 2024, Givaudan announced that it completed acquisition of B.Kolor, an Italian cosmetics manufacturer that also crystallised part of the company’s 2030 strategy to develop its skincare and makeup production.
“Customers can buy fragrances from Givaudan, they can get cosmetic ingredients for their products with all the know-how that comes with it, or they can say, ‘Actually, I want to buy a finished product,’” Rassmann said. Developing these finished products, alongside biotech ingredients like MoodScentz or encapsulation technology like Spherulite, forms a wide menu of services Givaudan can provide to its growing global clientele.
As the company has snapped up a number of local and regional manufacturers, the local and regional brands that serve them have become a significant chunk of their overall business — and will drive as much as 60 percent of the company’s sales growth by 2030.
“They start as a local customer in Asia or Europe, and then they go global,” Rassmann said, adding that India and Indonesia, in particular, are high potential markets for Givaudan Active Beauty.
“That doesn’t mean that we deprioritize other areas,” he continued. “We’re just expanding overall, because we’re a growing teenager, right?”
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