Letter to the Shareholders
Past Desires.
Creative Ideas.
New Accomplishments.
Desiring comfort, relaxation, beauty, health, and the good life has been the case from time immemorial. Desire as a market trend began to emerge some two decades ago. In the meantime, it has developed into a new philosophy of life. It has come to mean much more than just physical well-being. Each and every one of us wishes to feel wholly at ease and lead a long and active life in harmony with ourselves.
Consumer values and expectations marked a turning point in the food industry as well as the fragrance and cosmetic industries. Natural beauty, health, and well-being as well as convenience are global mega trends that are gaining in importance. The desire to lead a more healthy life is all too often frustrated by reality. People genuinely want to be healthier. However are they prepared to live healthier?
Consumers struggle with the conflict between their ideals and reality. They seek balance and, yet, they are caught up in complex working environments characterized by stress, lack of exercise, deadlines, and an imbalanced diet. Intensified urbanization means many people are living together in cramped and even misanthropic conditions. Natural fragrances cannot penetrate glass and cement barriers; stale air is recycled in air-conditioning systems.
At the same time, increased prosperity places products that can counteract this environmental adversity within consumers’ reach. High-class convenience products reduce the time needed to prepare meals, fragrances give laundry the scent of a flowery meadow, and cosmetic products help to diminish negative environmental influences and slow down the aging process.
At Symrise, we are committed to developing products that meet peoples’ desire for the good life products that let you enjoy life products that make being healthy and beautiful easy. We always strive to provide our products with an added value in the form of an extra feature or effect. We call this “the power of AND.” It has become one of the three pillars of our corporate philosophy.
Our products are created in close collaboration with our customers and are frequently made to order. The more closely we work with our customers and the more we know about them, the better we are able to develop products that meet their needs. “Indispensable” is the second pillar of our corporate philosophy. It means being a valuable and indispensable partner for our customers.
Being “bold” is the third pillar. It describes our corporate culture and how we endeavor to be a corporation that continuously sets itself ambitious goals and reaches them, as we did in 2007. By focusing on our customers and concentrating on fast-growing segments and regions, we have been able to grow twice as fast as the market. Total sales were up 6.2 percent in local currency and we significantly increased the percentage of our sales with strategic customers. More than 30 percent of our products come from the “AND” line. Sales in emerging markets now equal those in western Europe. All this resulted in a 12 percent jump in our EBITDA figure.
How did we do it? Three things guarantee our success. Knowledge of consumer desires which we are extremely careful to integrate into our product development. Innovations that ensure our products are dependable and give them that little something extra. A so extraordinary creativity that appeals to the consumers’ emotions, exposes them to a world of new experiences, and makes dreams come true. Each year we replace 30 percent of our products with new creations. This attests to the importance of creativity and innovation in our business.
Simply solving problems is passé. We think this approach is much too passive as reactions become too automatic and predictable. To us, creativity means proactive situations and applying networked thinking. Research is relatively one-dimensional and usually has a specific goal – that is the technical aspect. We add a bit of intuition, knowing there is always more than one correct solution to everything. Our success is not only derived from bringing together craftsmanship, creativity, and intuition. It also comes from transforming the ideas we generate in the process into business. We succeeded in doing that in 2007 by creating a unique growth structure that cannot be found anywhere else in the industry.
Here, we will outline for you a few of our propositions for commercial success. Follow the red threads and let yourself be inspired.
Sincerely
Gerold Linzbach
CEO