Swiss flavors and fragrances group Givaudan announced on Wednesday the start of construction of a $215 million (€185 million) plant in the United States.

Located in Reading, near Cincinnati, Ohio, the new plant will strengthen the group’s presence in North America, where its food-industry division already operates 17 sites across the United States and Canada, the company said in a press release.

“This new site represents our largest investment in the United States for many years, demonstrating the importance of this market for Givaudan,” said CEO Gilles Andrier, quoted in the release, which made no mention of US tariffs.

The administration of Donald Trump aims, through tariffs, to encourage companies to build factories and produce on American soil.

The group said the project will ultimately create 300 jobs. The plant will occupy 24,000 square meters within a reserved area of over 100,000 square meters, allowing for future expansion. Construction is scheduled to take 18 months.

North America is “a mature market” but still offers “vast growth opportunities for Givaudan,” said Arben Hasanaj, an analyst at Vontobel, in a market note.

Givaudan’s activities are split between a division dedicated to fragrances, which includes fine fragrances, ingredients for beauty products, and scents for hygiene products and detergents, and a division specializing in flavors for the food industry.

Last year, the Geneva-based group generated 23% of its sales in North America, where it competes notably with US company International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF).

Givaudan is scheduled to publish its nine-month sales figures on October 14. Across all markets, its 2024 sales totaled 7.4 billion Swiss francs (approximately €7.9 billion at current exchange rates).

Givaudan is among the Swiss groups with a strong presence in the United States, but it relies on a broad catalog of natural ingredients, such as vanilla, which must be imported from abroad.

When it published its first-half results, the group stated that it had implemented price increases to offset the higher costs expected from US tariffs.

Zurich, Oct. 8, 2025 (AFP)