Givaudan: Committed to Growth, with Purpose

Ten years ago, Switzerland’s Givaudan laid the first stones at its European savoury flavours manufacturing facility near Makó, SE Hungary. The global leader in the creation of flavours and fragrances opened its factory the following year.

As Head of Operations and Company Manager at the plant, Mihály Karkas tells Diplomacy&Trade, the company's management and shareholders are very satisfied with the performance and added value of the Hungarian facility. In recent years, the Makó plant has continuously developed, increased its production volume, and widened its product range. Now it is a regional manufacturing facility of excellence for powdered flavours within the international operations network at Givaudan.
Since 2011, production volume has increased by almost 40% and the number of products manufactured in Makó has reached the level of 4-5,000 per year. The number of employees has also grown from 300 at the beginning to more than 500 people today.

Collaborating and co-creating with stakeholders
In January 2021, Givaudan introduced its 2025 strategy ‘Committed to Growth, with Purpose,’ which is designed to deliver growth in partnership with customers and achieve ambitious financial targets, while also making progress on the company’s longer-term purpose ambitions in the areas of creations, nature, people and communities.
At the heart of Givaudan’s strategy is its purpose: ‘Creating for happier, healthier lives with love for nature. Let’s imagine together’. The ‘Let’s imagine together’ aspect of the purpose reflects the company’s inclusive approach toward collaborating with employees, customers, suppliers and partners to achieve goals that reflect shared values.
The company has translated its purpose into four focus areas with specific, measurable goals:
• Creations – “Imagining together that through our creations more people will enjoy happier, healthier lives.” This goal is supported by Givaudan’s ambition to double its business through creations that contribute to happier, healthier lives by 2030.
• Nature – “Givaudan builds upon the strong sustainability approach and commitments to reduce its carbon emissions from its operations by 70% and supply chain emissions by 20% by 2030, as well as its commitment to use 100% renewable electricity by 2025.”
• People – “Imagining together that Givaudan is a place where everyone loves to be and grow.” Building on the significant progress that Givaudan has made to ensure a safe working environment, the company has also committed to reducing its total recordable injuries cases by a further 50% by 2025. This is aligned with Givaudan’s ambition to further improve the way the company supports its peoples’ physical and mental health before 2025.”
• Communities – “Imagining together that all communities benefit by working with Givaudan. Progress towards this goal will be measured against ambition to improve the lives of millions of people in communities where the company sources and operates by 2030.” (See photo)

Supplying a wide range of products
Givaudan offers its products to global, regional and local food, beverage, consumer goods and fragrance companies and can even meet religious food requirements (kosher, halal). It is a supplier to the world’s top 150 FMCG companies through which it is much more present in everyday life than people might think.
“The Makó plant here in Hungary handles and produces a very broad portfolio of powdered flavorings. For example, we produce flavourings for snack products like potato crisps and extruded snacks product for a wide range of small companies both in Hungary and around the world. A very important segment of the Makó factory's portfolio is also its ‘savoury range’ for products like dry soups. For these, we produce flavour components in large quantities and in a wide range of flavours. In addition, we also supply the meat industry with spicy flavours for various sausages and processed meat products,” Mihály Karkas explains.
At the center of the company’s work is the ever-changing needs and preferences of consumers. For example, the company is very active and innovative in the development of plant-based meat. In Europe, these products are manufactured at the Makó plant. “In addition to plant-based products, we produce many flavours for bottled sauces and soups, we serve the baking industry with our products, and we also sell flavourings from Makó for instant noodles,” he adds.

Strategic location
The company chose to build the plant in Hungary because it is at the heart of East Central Europe, so it can serve customers efficiently throughout the EMEA region. “The basic strategic consideration was that this factory needed be built in a location where the logistics would enable efficient and sustainable customer service for customers in Western Europe, Central Europe, Turkey, as well as Russia and its neighboring countries.
“Given that Central European and Eastern European markets are developing at double-digit growth rates, it’s a decision that has served the company well,” the Company Manager stresses.

Human capital, the key to success
This factory has long enjoyed mutually beneficial cooperation with the nearby University of Szeged. As Mihály Karkas puts it, “In many ways, the greatest asset is not the factory itself and the physical assets, but the intellectual capacity that we have built and developed here. We are very proud of the fact that the intellectual capital of the Makó factory team remains the most important success factor in our business.” In fact, the young people who have graduated – and are graduating – from the University of Szeged, often join the Makó factory team as trainees for their first job.
“Of the more than 100 graduates we have, almost 90% graduated from the University of Szeged. I believe that higher education, a university-educated workforce, is extremely important for us, and I repeat: it is the key to our success. We are in contact with the University of Szeged through many channels. We participate in mentoring programmes, provide student scholarships, and run summer internship programmes. We have also taken on a very large number of students as factory staff immediately after graduation,” the Company Manager concludes.