Givaudan makes largest investment into China to date

Swiss fragrance producer Givaudan said Friday it has begun work on a new production site in China, where the firm sees strong growth potential.

The Geneva-based group said it was investing 100 million Swiss francs (86 million euros, $102 million) in the production facility at Changzhou, northwest of Shanghai, in what would be its largest investment in China to date.

The new site, joining others notably a manufacturing facility in Nantong, across the Yangtze River from Shanghai and set to open by 2020, will produce perfume fragrances as well as aromas used in oral hygiene products.

"With this investment in a market undergoing strong growth we are taking another step towards achieving our strategic ambitions through to 2020," said chief executive Gilles Andrier.

Givaudan, which supplies prestige names in perfumes including Christian Dior and Prada, sees Asia as pivotal to its growth strategy.

However, it has not entirely escaped the downturn of recent years and in 2015 trimmed its growth target to five percent per year through 2020.

Even so it is setting great store by rising consumer purchasing power in China and India.

Away from China, Givaudan two years ago opened a perfumery school campus in Singapore, its first such facility outside its legendary French site at Argenteuil outside Paris.

Earlier this year the company began work on a new fragrance encapsulation centre in Singapore, where it first established an office in 1992.

The new facility is due to open its doors next year.