International Flavors & Fragrances

What International Flavors & Fragrances does

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE:IFF) is a global B2B specialty ingredients company headquartered in New York that designs and supplies flavors, fragrances, food and bioscience ingredients to consumer packaged goods manufacturers worldwide. The company traces its origin to 1889 (Pollak & Schwartz) and was rebranded IFF in 1958, with a transformative 2021 merger with DuPont's Nutrition & Biosciences business. IFF serves approximately 18,000 customers across food and beverage, scent/fragrance, health and biosciences, beauty and personal care, home care, animal nutrition, grain processing, and industrial markets, operating from facilities in 65+ countries with roughly 22,400 employees including 3,000+ scientists and engineers and 600+ perfumers, flavorists and scent design managers.

The company's technology base rests on proprietary formulation science and bioscience platforms. Core innovations include Living Flower Technology (solid phase micro extraction for capturing flower aromas), Living Flavor Technology for industrial-scale natural flavors, the HOWARU probiotics line, CARE4U botanicals, LMR Naturals (a 25+ year natural ingredients platform with precision molecular distillation in Grasse, France and 71+ ECOCERT certifications), the Designed Enzymatic Biomaterials (DEB) biopolymers platform, and a clinical pipeline with 30+ active human trials and 8,000+ granted and pending patents supported by $671 million in annual R&D spend. Origin-based infrastructure includes the 650 sq meter Vanilla Innovation Center in Toamasina, Madagascar and the Shanghai Creative Center, IFF's largest Greater Asia site.

IFF operates an enterprise B2B sales model with quote-based pricing across four primary revenue streams — Taste (flavors), Scent (fine and consumer fragrances), Food Ingredients (being divested to CVC Capital Partners for $4.3B), and Health & Biosciences (probiotics, cultures, enzymes, botanicals). FY2025 reported revenue was approximately $10.89B against FY2026 guidance of $10.5-10.8B, with Q1 2026 revenue of $2.74B (down 3.6% YoY). Under CEO J. Erik Fyrwald (joined February 2024), IFF is executing a portfolio simplification strategy that has already divested Pharma Solutions to Roquette ($2.85B, 2025) and soy businesses to Bunge ($110M, March 2026), with the Food Ingredients sale to CVC (~$4.3B at ~10x EBITDA, retaining a 10% minority stake) expected to close by end of Q2 2027. Reported revenue is therefore expected to step down as the company concentrates on differentiated, higher-margin specialty platforms in scent, taste and biosciences.

Name

International Flavors & Fragrances

Legal name

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc.

Website

https://iff.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

1889

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

5,001–10,000 employees

Short description

International Flavors & Fragrances is a global B2B supplier of flavors, fragrances, health and bioscience solutions, serving approximately 18,000 consumer packaged goods customers across food, beverage, personal care, home care, and animal nutrition end markets with proprietary science-based ingredients and formulation technologies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Flavor, Fragrance and Specialty Ingredients

NAICS

Food Manufacturing (311), Flavoring Syrup and Concentrate Manufacturing (311930)

SIC

Soap, Detergents, Cleang Preparations, Perfumes, Cosmetics (2840), Food And Kindred Products (2000), Medicinal Chemicals & Botanical Products (2833), Perfumes, Cosmetics & Other Toilet Preparations (2844)

akta.pro primary industry

Flavors, Fragrances & Aroma Chemicals (IMAEABAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Flavorings & Extracts (Natural & Artificial) (CRADAOAA), Fine Fragrance (Women’s/Men’s/Unisex) (CRABADAA), Clean-Label/Natural Flavor Solutions (Natural WONF, Natural Identical where applicable) (AFAJADAL), Vitamins & Minerals (Single Nutrients) (CRADAGAB)

Keywords

• Flavor and fragrance
• Food ingredients
• Bioscience solutions
• Probiotics and enzymes
• Specialty ingredients

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices10 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Flavors: Taste/flavor solutions for food and beverage manufacturers - core business segment serving culinary, dairy, beverage, bakery, snacks, and confectionery categories
2. Fragrances: Scent solutions including fine fragrances, consumer fragrances (home care, personal care), and fragrance ingredients - includes LMR Naturals premium natural ingredients
3. Food Ingredients: Ingredients including emulsifiers, sweeteners, texturizers, enzymes, and specialty ingredients for food manufacturers - business being divested to CVC Capital Partners
4. Health & Biosciences: Probiotics, cultures, enzymes, and microbiome solutions for health, food, home care, and personal care applications including HOWARU and CARE4U product lines

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) develops, manufactures and sells taste (flavor), scent (fragrance), food ingredient and bioscience solutions to consumer packaged goods manufacturers worldwide. The company serves approximately 18,000 customers across food and beverage, personal care, home care, animal nutrition, grain processing, and health & wellness end markets through a portfolio of proprietary ingredients, natural extracts, enzymes, probiotics and cultures.

Product overview

IFF provides a comprehensive portfolio of ingredients and solutions across food, beverage, health, biosciences, and scent markets. The company operates through distinct business units including Taste (flavors), Scent (fine fragrances and consumer fragrances), Health & Biosciences (probiotics, cultures, enzymes), Food Ingredients, Beauty & Personal Care, Home Care, Animal Nutrition & Health, Grain Processing, and Industrial Markets. Key product brands include HOWARU probiotics, CARE4U botanicals, LMR Naturals, IFF CURE, YO-MIX PRIME cultures, GENENCARE actives, AURIST functionals, and various enzyme platforms. The architecture combines core ingredient platforms with specialized application expertise across diverse end markets.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• LMR Naturals: Natural ingredients platform for perfumery, featuring products developed through long-term sourcing partnerships and precision molecular distillation at LMR's Grasse facility.
• HOWARU
• CARE4U
• GENENCARE
• AURIST
• OPTIMASE
• PrimaGreen
• IFF CURE
• YO-MIX

Products and services

• Taste (Flavors)

Quantifiable outcome

• ~1 out of 4 perfumes sold globally created by IFF
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• BioMADEminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 July 2026National manufacturing innovation institute for industrial biotechnology hosting fermentation and metabolic engineering workshops. IFF professionals serve as instructors for workshops covering metabolic engineering and microbial fermentation.
• Kemira (Alpha Bio Joint Venture)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Formation of Alpha Bio joint venture with Kemira, a key strategic partnership in IFF's portfolio transformation.
• Health Wright Products LLCminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 February 2022Manufacturer of dietary supplements acquired by IFF in February 2022, adding formulation, encapsulation, and packaging capabilities for probiotics and nutritional supplements. Generated approximately $100 million in revenue in 2021.
• ISIPCAcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2016Partnership with world-renowned French school of perfumery, cosmetics and food flavors to establish a three-year master's program in scent design and creation at ISIPCA's Versailles campus. Marks 10 years of joint program in 2026.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves14 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Givaudan: World's largest flavors and fragrances company, headquartered in Switzerland. Givaudan directly competes with IFF across fine fragrance, consumer fragrance, food flavors and ingredients, and is the most direct global benchmark for IFF's core F&F business.
• Symrise: German-based flavors, fragrances, and food ingredients company with comparable portfolio across taste, scent and nutrition. Symrise competes head-to-head with IFF in beverage, savory, personal care and fine fragrance categories.
• DSM-Firmenich: Post-2023 merger of Royal DSM and Firmenich, combining nutrition/health ingredients with perfumery. Directly competes with IFF across flavors, fragrances, and the health & biosciences segment, and is a key benchmark for IFF's bioscience strategy.
• Mane: French family-owned flavors and fragrances house with global operations. Mane is a direct peer in both fine fragrance and consumer fragrance, with comparable creative and natural ingredients capabilities similar to IFF's LMR platform.
• Robertet: French natural ingredients and fragrance company with strong positioning in naturals. Robertet is a direct comparable to IFF's LMR Naturals business and competes for premium fragrance house customers.
• Takasago International Corporation: Japanese flavors and fragrances company with global manufacturing and creative centers. Takasago is a direct peer in fine fragrance, consumer fragrance and food flavors, particularly across Greater Asia where IFF also operates the Shanghai Creative Center.
• Sensient Technologies: US-based flavors, fragrances and colors company serving food, beverage and personal care. Sensient is a smaller but directly comparable peer to IFF's Taste and Scent segments.
• Kerry Group: Irish taste and nutrition company serving food and beverage manufacturers globally. Kerry competes with IFF's Taste division across culinary, beverage and snack applications, and overlaps with IFF's now-divesting Food Ingredients business.

Broad incumbents

• Archer Daniels Midland (ADM): Global agribusiness and nutrition company with broad ingredients portfolio including flavors and bioscience. ADM is a broader incumbent peer — overlapping with IFF's food ingredients, enzymes and flavors but not as specialized in F&F.
• BASF: Largest chemical company in the world with a significant aroma chemicals and specialty ingredients portfolio serving fragrance and personal care customers. BASF is a broad incumbent peer providing raw materials and competing partially with IFF's fragrance ingredients.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/iff
• Xx.com/iff
• Facebookfacebook.com/internationalflavorsandfragrances

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles15 records

Subsidiaries8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A10 records

Investments2 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about International Flavors & Fragrances