Swiss flavours and fragrance giant Givaudan has closed its Innovation Centre in Kemptthal, Switzerland, due to an employee coronavirus diagnosis.
A member of Givaudan staff was diagnosed with Covid-19 after visiting the centre, near Zurich, from another site.
The 12,000sqm workspace opened last year and can accommodate 300 employees.
Stefanie Lauber, Head of Corporate Communications at Givaudan, told Cosmetics Business the voluntary decision was made in order to carry out a deep clean on the facility.
She also said the measure was taken “to make people feel at ease” and expects the site to reopen next week, but this is yet to be confirmed.
The business does not expect the closure to have a knock-on effect for its customers.
According to John Hopkins University, there have been 95 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Switzerland, the fifth highest behind Italy, Germany, France and Spain, with one fatality.
The vast majority of cases have been found in mainland China with more than 80,000.
The outbreak has also caused a number of beauty trade shows, including in-Cosmetics Global and Cosmoprof Bologna, to be postponed.
Read more about how the outbreak of Covid-19 has affected the beauty sector via the links below.
- in-Cosmetics Global postponed until June as coronavirus fears escalate
- Coronavirus prompts Beauty Dusseldorf to postpone until September
- Coronavirus forces Inter Parfums to delay fragrance launches
- Lush helps curb coronavirus with free hand wash service
- Cosmoprof Bologna postponed due to outbreak of coronavirus in Italy
