German fragrance group drom is to open a new plant in India before the end of the year, bringing its total production capacity to 40,000 tonnes annually.
The Munich-based company has plants in the US, Brazil and China and in India will set up a joint company with a local partner. Remi Ricord, the group's president for France, said that in India, the perfumes and aromas industry was worth about $350m and was growing at 8% a year while at world level the sector was worth some $18.5bn.
Ricord said that when the company worked for clients such as L'Oréal, it had to be capable of following them into markets such as Brazil and China as well as supplying them very rapidly; in drom's case this was a maximum of seven days.
The production plants are almost entirely automated and are controlled from Germany. The raw materials are purchased through Germany for redistribution to the production sites - a process that guarantees even product quality internationally.
drom has been able to double its sales over the past eight years to €120m in 2007 with a net margin of some 3% of sales, putting it in eighth position worldwide, some way behind IFF and Givaudan. Current clients include Escada, Procter & Gamble and Yves Rocher. Some 40% of sales are achieved in Europe, 30% in the US, 10% in Brazil and 20% in China. Sales in France rose 8% last year to €10m.
