Firmenich Marks 3 Years of its Flagship ALIBABA E-shop with Broadest Ingredients Portfolio & Enhanced Digital Experience

SHANGHAI,June 30,2021 -- Firmenich,the world's largest privately-owned perfume and taste company,marks third anniversary of its flagship ALIBABA e-shop,with an enhanced range of fragrance and flavor ingredients and a best-in-class digital customer experience. Offering a quadrupled selection of signature products,the pioneering Firmenich ALIBABA e-shop includes a brand new series of flavor ingredients aimed at SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) in China. Marking a new digital milestone for direct customer engagement,the e-platform offers an improved payment system,one-click access to marketing kits,and immediate access to customer service online.

"Firmenich is advancing digitalization within the industry and focusing on improving the experience for our customers via digital touchpoints. We are well placed to remain at the leading edge of digital transformation with such a strong partner as ALIBABA," said Paul Andersson,President of Firmenich China. "We have multiple collaborations with the ALIBABA group across much of its ecosystem and we look forward to deepening our partnership even further to serve our customers in China."

"As a key step in our digital transformation,we were the first fragrance and flavor house to implement an e-shop with ALIBABA three years ago," said Eric Saracchi,Chief Digital and Information Officer. "Collaborating with China's recognized digital leader allowed us to better understand Chinese consumers by leveraging TMALL data to activate sales across this robust digital platform. We now have unique knowhow in building digital experiences that deliver tangible success with ALIBABA for our customers."

"We are proud to partner with Firmenich,a leading global fragrance and flavor house,to bring an enhanced digital purchasing experience to customers in China," said Wang Hai,Vice President of ALIBABA Group and General Manager,China Domestic Trading Division. "Consumer behavior is driving a new wave of industrial progress. It requires the construction of a flexible digital supply chain,from upstream industrial raw materials to downstream consumer experience. The trend for C2M (consumer to manufacturer) strategies to meet branding and personalized needs is inevitable."

Firmenich was the first in the industry to set up a dedicated flagship ALIBABA e-shop in March 2018 on 1688.com. The Group has been at the forefront of perfecting the customer purchasing experience on this unique platform. Two years later,in 2020,Firmenich signed a C2M partnership with ALIBABA in Hangzhou to support consumer brands and speed up their commercialization in the e-commerce space. Within the first three months of the partnership,Firmenich successfully enabled the launch of several customers' products on ALIBABA's marketplace. These included customized fragrances for Guokai's air fresheners and flavors for KuShi's sugarless sparkling water.

In 2021,Firmenich joined with ALIBABA Group's TMALL Baby and TMALL Household Cleansing departments to host the Air Care and Laundry customer salons in China,bringing together Firmenich's expertise on fragrances and TMALL's huge consumer database to support downstream manufacturers who wish to innovate in the market.

About Firmenich

Firmenich is the world's largest privately-owned perfume and taste company,founded in Geneva,Switzerland,in 1895 and has been family-owned for 125 years. Firmenich is a leading business-to-business company operating primarily in the fragrance and taste market,specialized in the research,creation,manufacture and sale of perfumes,flavors and ingredients. Renowned for its world-class research and creativity,as well as its leadership in sustainability,Firmenich offers its customers superior innovation in formulation,a broad and high-quality palette of ingredients,and proprietary technologies including biotechnology,encapsulation,olfactory science and taste modulation.Firmenich had an annual turnover of 3.9 billion Swiss Francs at end June 2020. More information about Firmenich is available at www.firmenich.com

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