Frutaron turns 80

Frutarom natural flavors turns 80

  • 4/25/2013
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    Frutarom markets more than 30,000 products to more than 14,000 customers in 130 countries, and is building another plant in Israel.
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    ​By Avigayil Kadesh
    In a couple of years, Israel’s multinational Frutarom  company will complete its latest facility, a $30 million plant in the Galilee to develop and produce a range of natural flavors and extracts for food, beverage and health products worldwide. 
    “We plan to set up a state-of-the-art R&D center and application center to focus on developing new flavors -- most of them natural,” says Ari Rosenthal, Frutarom’s general manager for Israel and emerging markets.
    “In the application center, our customers will work together with us on formulating the specific flavor profile for their product -- let’s say, a new strawberry yogurt.”
    This new expansion comes as Frutarom is celebrating its 80th anniversary. The company was founded in Haifa in 1933 in order to cultivate aromatic plants and flowers and extract flavors and essential oils. It is now among the 10 leading companies in the world in the field of flavors and fine ingredients for the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetics industries.
     

    This 1940 photo is from Frutarom’s archives
    The company markets more than 30,000 products to more than 14,000 customers in 130 countries, and employs 2,100 people in 28 R&D labs, 27 production facilities and 50 sales and marketing offices across the globe.
    That’s why the decision to spend NIS 100 million (approximately USD 27 million) to build another Israeli facility is significant.
    “We decided to invest in Israel rather than any other place in the world, because we are a global company but we are proud of being an Israeli company and it is important to us to invest here and support the country in terms of employment,” says Rosenthal.

     
     
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  • Focus on citrus

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    One of the areas of specialization for the new R&D center will be developing additional citrus extracts, according to Rosenthal. An innovative Frutarom product already on the market is a natural, zero-calorie sweetener enhancer sourced from citrus.
     
    “Israel is a strong base for citrus, so we see that as another step in our strategy of being the preferred partner for health and taste,” she says.
     
    About 75% of Frutarom’s business is producing components to support sweet or savory tastes of all kinds, in liquid or powder form, for beverages, dairy, meat, bakery and other processed food applications.
     
    The other 25 percent is handled by the fine ingredients division -- extracts, specialty essential oils, citrus products and aroma chemicals for flavoring, pharma, nutraceutical and functional food manufacturers. A lot of the natural extracts that offer health benefits typically have "off" tastes, and manufacturers look to Frutarom’s expertise to counteract those.
     
    Rosenthal explains that functional foods include products with beneficial health ingredients – such as flavored water with additives to improve memory or energy, or dairy products with added omega-3 from plant sources.
     
    “We are positioned between taste and health,” he says. “People want to get the sense that what they eat is going to taste good and is going to be integrated into their body in a consistent way with their beliefs about being healthy.”

  • Clean labels

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    About 70 percent of Frutarom’s products are now natural, meaning they are free of ingredients whose names customers don’t understand and don’t trust to be healthful.
     
    “Regulations tell you what you can’t use. The customers tell you what they need, and most of them need more ‘clean label’ ingredients that are healthier,” says Rosenthal.
     

    The 80-year-old company markets more than 30,000 products
    to more than 14,000 customers in 130 countries     
    Rosenthal could not reveal names of clients, but says Frutarom deals with leading manufacturers globally. “We work with our customers to provide solutions that combine flavor -- or even the marketing concept for a new food -- together with the texture of the product and also shelf life using natural preservatives.”
     
    Research and innovation are a core competency for Frutarom, he adds. The company collaborates with universities, research institutes and startups.
     
    Aside from the main Haifa plant, Frutarom has two other Israeli facilities – one in Acre (Acco) in the north, which makes savory seasonings and spices for snacks and meat products; and another in Kibbutz Ketura in the south, producing ingredients for cosmetics companies.
     
    Fr
    utarom also produces ingredients in the US, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, China, Slovenia, Brazil, South Africa and Turkey. The company’s global marketing organization includes branches in Israel, the US, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, France, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica, China, Japan, Hong Kong, India ,Indonesia and South Africa.
     
    Over the years, the company has acquired 32 businesses, and between 2001 and 2011 its revenues increased from $101.2 million to $518 million.