One of the world's top four flavours and fragrance companies in the world, Symrise says it has been an expert on citrus flavourings for decades. It has a dedicated citrus innovation team. Clearly it views the market for fresh citrus tasting foods and scents as enduring, as the new Global Citrus Centre is core to the company's drive to take its expertise to new depths. "The Global Citrus Centre is evidence that we have big plans," said Dr Heinz-Juergen Bertram, global president of flavour and nutrition. "We see this as the start of our international citrus offensive… Brazil is the perfect site for our core citrus competency." The centre, which will be built over two construction phases, is located in Sorocaba, southern Brazil - an industrial city with good links to prime citrus growing areas. In addition, the centre will provide a base to bring together Symrise's basic in-house research and new in-house technologies. Plans for the site include a 30,000 square metre facilities for the development and application technologies divisions, and pilot plans for various processing technologies. It will also make an investment to increase its spray-drying capacity in the middle of this year. Following a period of restructuring, the company announced that sales grew by 7 per cent in 2006 to reach €1.229bn - a figure largely attributable to the successful implementation of its realignment.
