NEW YORK — Unlocking growth opportunities, driving innovation, managing the portfolio and accelerating business transformation will form the foundation of a new strategy at International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc.
Details of the strategy, coined Vision 2021, were unveiled during the company’s Investor Day conference held June 5 in New York.
“Our Vision 2021 strategy has been designed to leverage our newly combined organization, our broader product portfolio, increased naturals portfolio, expanded market access, broader customer base and greater innovation pipeline to drive total shareholder return,” said Andreas Fibig, chairman and chief executive officer. “We are focused on disciplined execution and capital stewardship.”
Vision 2021 is comprised of four pillars, Mr. Fibig said.
First, unlocking growth opportunities. Through this pillar I.F.F. plans to capitalize on its expanded product portfolio, broader customer base and extensive geographic presence.
The second pillar is driving innovation. I.F.F. said it intends to invest in high-growth and high-return platforms to continue to drive its R.&D. pipeline and accelerate long-term growth.
A third pillar for I.F.F. will revolve around managing the portfolio. The company said it will focus on optimizing its portfolio to maximize value creation.
Finally, I.F.F. will look to accelerate business transformation. Specifically, the company mentioned the integration of Frutarom and achieving productivity gains across its base business.
To help the company achieve its Vision 2021 strategy, I.F.F. has rolled out a new organizational structure that will be implemented over the next 12 months. As part of the new organizational structure I.F.F. will be organized into three business segments: Taste, Scent and Nutrition & Ingredients.
“We really believe that this is a great setup for us,” Mr. Fibig said during the June 5 conference call. “It’s a great setup for collaboration. It’s a great setup for getting all of the synergies out of the organization as much as we can. We have kept the two-market organization always intact because there are no changes in the salesforce, there are no changes in the creative centers. The only change may be that we do some upgrades on creative centers, which is actually exciting for the customers. … The Taste point is now the blueprint from the U.S. for a global organization here as well. What we have in particular on the side of Frutarom are a lot of really good general managers who know how to run their businesses on the ground, and we protect this organization because we believe it will be very beneficial for us going forward.”
I.F.F. said Matthias Haeni will continue to lead Taste, a position he has held since April 2014. Taste will include Frutarom’s Taste, Savory Solutions and Inclusions businesses.
Nicolas Mirzayantz will continue to lead Scent, a role he has held since October 2016, while Yoni Glickman will lead Nutrition & Ingredients. Mr. Glickman most recently led Frutarom’s Natural Product Solutions business.
“We believe that we have now a real great base to grow the business,” Mr. Fibig said. “Diversified product portfolio, a lot of categories we didn’t have before, but they are very close to our core, which helps us to grow the business faster. Great access to core lists. We have actually the access we need; there is not one single core list we want to be on right now. I think it’s where we are. We have 60% of our sales with mid-sized and small customers. We have the greatest, biggest and best pipeline in innovation we ever had. … So all in all, a good position, a good situation for us to grow our business for the next three years.”