Symrise has kicked of fiscal 2017 with a ‘significant’ boost to both sales and earnings. The fragrance and flavors manufacturer reported a 4.6 percent rise in sales to €765.2 million for the first quarter of the year, while EBIDTA was up 4.4 percent to €165.5 million.

 “The targeted investments to expand our portfolio, the further development of our customer relationships, and the efforts to build our market presence continued to pay off in the first quarter. We seamlessly maintained our strong performance into the first months of 2017, expanded our existing business in all segments, and also gained new customer projects. There is therefore every reason to feel confident as we look forward to the coming months,” commented Heinz-Jurgen Bertram, CEO.

Breaking down the sales by division, Scent & Care suffered from the sale of Pinova., causing a dip of 3.2 percent on the prior-year quarter, up 1.1 percent on an adjusted basis. The company revealed that aroma molecules were the star of the show, with the strongest first-quarter sales, while fine fragrance put in a solid performance.