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World's largest flavor and fragrance company, formulating scents and tastes used in perfumes, cosmetics, food, and beverages.
World's largest flavor and fragrance company, formulating scents and tastes used in perfumes, cosmetics, food, and beverages.
Wins projects by competing on briefs from consumer brands, then is paid per kilogram of the compound it supplies, usually for the life of the product, so a won formula can produce sales for years. Fragrance and Beauty and Taste and Wellbeing are its two divisions, and raw-material cost increases are largely passed on to customers with a lag. Buying Naturex in 2018 added natural ingredients.
In one line: A larger International Flavors & Fragrances.
Moat: narrow (IP / patents, scale, switching costs). Proprietary formulations are embedded in customer products; category leadership built over a century.
Headquarters: Vernier, Switzerland · Founded: 1895 · Employees: 17,580
Size Givaudan (GIVN.SW) is a Switzerland Consumer Staples company (Household/Personal Care) with a market value of $45.8B, the 12th largest of 158 Switzerland companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at CHF 4,054 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 46.8%, against +15.8% for the median peer and +11.6% for the Switzerland market (cap-weighted) — 2nd highest of 16 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 1.8% over the last twelve months (peer median +1.7%); the operating margin is 18.3% (peer median 14.2%).
Valuation It trades at 34.0× forward earnings against a peer median of 24.2× (3rd most expensive of 16).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 11% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +3%, so the hurdle is +7 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 6.6 points above its cost of capital (5.4% WACC).
Credit Givaudan has 4 bonds outstanding ($2.23B), rated A- by the agencies and trading like AA- at a weighted spread of 78 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 27 Jan 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | CHF 7.41B | CHF 7.47B | CHF 7.41B | CHF 6.92B | CHF 7.12B |
| Revenue growth | — | +1% | +7% | -3% | — |
| Gross profit | CHF 3.11B | CHF 3.12B | CHF 3.14B | CHF 2.72B | CHF 2.63B |
| EBITDA | CHF 1.73B | CHF 1.77B | CHF 1.77B | CHF 1.47B | CHF 1.46B |
| Net income | CHF 954M | CHF 1.07B | CHF 1.09B | CHF 893M | CHF 856M |
| Free cash flow | CHF 1.11B | CHF 1.19B | CHF 1.31B | CHF 1.07B | CHF 666M |
| Capital expenditure | CHF 338M | CHF 305M | CHF 293M | CHF 275M | CHF 304M |
| Total debt | n/a | CHF 4.42B | CHF 4.75B | CHF 4.91B | CHF 5.00B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Givaudan GIVN.SW | $45.8B | +47% | -2% | 18% | 34.0× | 10.6% |
| International Flavors & Fragrances IFF | $20.7B | +2% | -17% | 11% | 23.4× | 17.9% |
| Symrise SY1.DE | $15.1B | +30% | -1% | 12% | 24.8× | 8.1% |
| DSM-Firmenich DSFIR.AS | $29.5B | +62% | -45% | 8% | 30.1× | 24.3% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | GIVN.SW | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +18.9% | +10.6% | 2nd highest of 16 |
| 6-month return | +46.8% | +15.8% | 2nd highest of 16 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -2.0% | -5.2% | 4th highest of 16 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -1.8% | +1.7% | 7th lowest of 16 |
| Operating margin | 18.3% | 14.2% | 5th highest of 16 |
| Forward P/E | 34.0× | 24.2× | 3rd most expensive of 16 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 10.6% | 2.7% | 5th most demanding of 16 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +3.4% | +4.1% | 8th lowest of 16 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +7.2 pp | +2.1 pp | 6th most demanding of 16 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +6.6 pp | +6.9 pp | 8th lowest of 16 |
| EV / EBITDA | 24.3× | 14.4× | 3rd most expensive of 16 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.7× | 1.4× | 3rd most indebted of 16 |
| Bond spread | 78 bp | 67 bp | 3rd widest of 9 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Givaudan GIVN.SW | Switzerland | $45.8B | +47% | -2% | 18% | 34.0× | 10.6% | +3.4% |
| Reckitt Benckiser RKT.L | United Kingdom | $47.6B | +22% | -2% | 28% | 16.4× | 1.6% | +0.3% |
| Hindustan Unilever HINDUNILVR.NS | India | $49.6B | -12% | +6% | 21% | 41.5× | 27.2% | +6.5% |
| Estée Lauder Companies (The) EL | United States | $39.9B | +28% | +6% | 13% | 31.1× | 16.8% | -1.5% |
| Kimberly-Clark KMB | United States | $66.5B | +12% | -12% | 14% | 15.3× | 4.1% | -3.0% |
| DSM-Firmenich DSFIR.AS | Netherlands | $29.5B | +62% | -45% | 8% | 30.1× | 24.3% | +2.5% |
| Colgate-Palmolive CL | United States | $76.8B | +10% | +6% | 22% | 24.2× | -5.5% | +4.4% |
| Church & Dwight CHD | United States | $25.8B | +17% | +2% | 18% | 27.4× | 6.9% | +4.8% |
| Kao 4452.T | Japan | $21.8B | +33% | +6% | 10% | 24.4× | 1.5% | +4.1% |
| Beiersdorf BEI.DE | Germany | $20.4B | +21% | -2% | 12% | 22.6× | -2.3% | +7.0% |
| Essity ESSITY-A.ST | Sweden | $19.9B | +17% | -2% | 12% | 15.4× | -3.3% | +2.6% |
| Unilever ULVR.L | United Kingdom | $143B | +15% | -20% | 20% | 18.4× | 8.0% | -0.8% |
| Puig Brands PUIG.MC | Spain | $12.5B | +16% | +4% | 16% | 17.9× | -3.0% | +11.7% |
| Marico MARICO.NS | India | $12.3B | +8% | +20% | 16% | 51.8× | 28.0% | +11.1% |
| Unicharm 8113.T | Japan | $12.1B | +15% | 0% | 12% | 24.5× | -2.0% | +5.4% |
| Clorox CLX | United States | $12.1B | +8% | +6% | 14% | 17.4× | 2.7% | -1.8% |
Givaudan has 4 bonds outstanding with $2.23B face value. The agencies rate it A-; its bonds trade like AA-. Weighted yield 3.88%, a spread of 78 bp over government bonds.