SWITZERLAND'S WINNING FORMULA

SWISS MANUFACTURERS MAKE UP AN OUTSIZE SHARE OF THE FORTUNE 500 EUROPE; THE SUCCESS OF FRAGRANCE GIANT DSM-FIRMENICH HELPS EXPLAIN WHY.

- BY PETER VANHAM

IT'S A SIGHT you might not expect to see in one of the world’s most expensive cities. But on the outskirts of Geneva, known for its discreet wealth, high wages, and multimillion-dollar homes, the Fortune 500 Europe fragrance producer dsm-firmenich operates its single biggest perfumery plant, where it conducts a huge proportion of its manufacturing and R&D.

In one wing of the sprawling site, a few dozen so-called master perfumers mix vials to create the next Acqua di Giò or CK One luxury perfume, or to formulate a new detergent for a client aiming to reach new customers in Singapore, the U.S., or the Middle East. There are thousands of vials, many of them containing copyrighted scents. A friendly robot fetches them for the perfumers, saving time.

A little farther out on the site, there’s a more conventional factory, where giant industrial mixers mass-produce dsm-firmenich’s scents. A few workers oversee the process. Others pick the fluids up in trucks and send them across Europe and the world.

In another central building, factory workers, master perfumers, and office workers all mingle over lunch. It feels like a throwback to the 1960s, the high tide of Europe's postwar industrialization boom, before the mass outsourcing of industrial activity from the West to low-cost economies like China.

How does dsm-firmenich, an industrial company with century-old origins (the company formed in 2023, following the merger of Switzerland's Firmenich with Dutch chemical maker DSM), manage to remain globally competitive today, given that a large share of its operations are located in the most expensive country in the world? And does the approach taken by dsm-firmenich and other Swiss companies hold any lessons for the rest of corporate Europe as it tries to regain its footing in world markets?

TALENT IN DEPTH