Givaudan has described its first quarter results as ‘a good start to the year’ as the Swiss flavors and fragrances supplier saw like-for-like sales grow 3.5 percent to CHF 1,242 million in the three months to March 31 – up 7.7 percent in Swiss Francs.

The fragrance division in particular put in a strong performance, up 2.1 percent (like-for-like) against strong prior year comparables for the same period in 2016. Similarly, consumer products increased like-for-like sales 3.2 percent thanks to a strong performance in North America and Latin America.

Sales of fragrance ingredients and active beauty were down 1.7 percent, for although active beauty recorded double digit growth, this was tempered by low volume demand for fragrance ingredients.