Symrise is investing  €50 million (US$55 million) in the construction of a new production site for flavorings in Nantong, China. The move marks the company’s largest individual investment to date and the new plant was inaugurated virtually – in a video conference – due to COVID-19 social distancing measures. Due to its proximity to Shanghai, the company hails the site as having “versatile potential,” also boosted by its modern infrastructure and variety of sustainability aspects.

“The opening of our plant in Nantong demonstrates our trust in the Chinese market, and we are consciously committing ourselves to the world’s strongest growth region. Of course, we are also keeping a close eye on how the COVID-19 situation is progressing here,” comments CEO Heinz-Jürgen Bertram on the strategic approach. 

The expansion of the production of fragrances and flavorings in the rapidly expanding Chinese market is relevant, because the world’s second-largest economy has great potential to soon become number one, the company notes. The company’s subsidiary Tesium, specialist in technology, safety and the environment, assisted the local Symrise experts in planning and implementation.

“This development correlates with the history of Symrise in the country. In the past ten years, the company has grown around eight percent per year on average. With a six-percent share of total sales, China follows the US and Germany as the third-strongest revenue-generating market for Symrise,” the flavorists detail.

“From these observations, we enacted measures and were successful in keeping our entire business running and opening our plant as planned. Ultimately, we want to reliably serve our customers in China and grow with them,” Bertram adds.

In a previous exclusive FoodIngredientsFirst interview, Christina Witter, Director Corporate Communications at Symrise detailed that raw materials from China and India are most difficult to acquire. As such, the new production facility in China may aid in expediting business. “In China, we are facing some logistics constraints. In India, it is more difficult because of the local lockdown situation. Our supply chain is partly affected by limited transportation capacity,” Witter highlighted at the time.

Symrise has been focusing on shifting its strategy toward more local sourcing, development and production, as delays in shipping put immense pressure on trade. “Transportation from/to Asia (mainly China and India) is affected by longer lead times for sea as well as air freight. Also road transportation within Europe takes longer than usual due to increased border controls, limited number of trucks, etc,” explained Witter in the previous interview.