Presentation and history
FROM 1986 : 4th GENERATION
The next generation of the Maubert family was represented by Philippe, Christophe, and Olivier, who took over the company's operations at the beginning of the 1980s. The family-owned company prepared to step up its activity. In 1984, Robertet went public with a listing on the Paris Stock Exchange's Secondary Market. Yet the Maubert family carefully maintained a majority of the shares and direction of the company. The listing enabled the company to look to expansion in the U.S. market. In 1986, Robertet acquired the United States' Jay Flavors, giving it a manufacturing base in the United States and a number of that country's major food producers as its clients. In 1990, the company changed its U.S. subsidiary's name to Robertet Flavors.
Food and beverage flavourings helped to drive the company's sales into the new decade. This operation was boosted by the creation of a joint venture operation, Champarome, with beverage makers Marie Brizard, Joker, and Idianova. The company, which had remained focused primarily on the U.S. and European markets, stepped up its presence in Japan when it launched a team to develop flavours specifically for that and other Asian markets in 1990.
Even though flavourings had grown to represent a significant portion of the company's sales, Robertet continued to boost its historic fragrance activities. In 1992, the company created a new subsidiary in Italy, Robertet Fragrances. The following year, Philippe Maubert was named the company's president. At the same time, Robertet expanded its U.S. operations with the acquisition of Novarome Inc., a perfume ingredients specialist based in New Jersey, which was then renamed and placed under the company's Robertet Fragrances subsidiary operations. The company also continued to invest in its Grasse location, expanding its research facilities in 1994.
Robertet's revenues rose quickly in the 1990s as both the perfume and flavourings industries proved recession proof. From revenues of FFr 550 million in 1992, the company saw its sales grow steadily, reaching FFr 780 million in 1995 and nearly FFr 900 million by 1998. As the company was preparing to celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2000, it forecasted that it would break the FFr 1 billion mark for the first time. Yet the company bested its own provisions, topping the FFr 1 billion mark a full year earlier than expected in 1999.
In 2001, Robertet acquired the Belgian company PAB from the Danone Group, and renamed it Robertet Savoury. The company boasts a huge industrial facility with potential to evolve and should, in the future, enrich its range of products to become the Group's savoury flavour centre.
2006 saw the opening of a creative centre in New York, on 5th Avenue, one of the most prestigious addresses in Manhattan. This investment highlights Robertet's commitment to getting closer to the major names in perfumery in the United States.
In 2007, the company launched a large-scale development programme that included: buying into the company Charabot; constructing a new factory in China; and founding a joint company with a major Indian group, complete with an industrial project. In the United States, we continue to expand in the field of Flavours, thanks to an investment programme in the order of 30 million dollars.
Finally, as the year 2008 gets underway, Robertet furthers its commitment to developing natural products by taking a stake in the company Plantes Aromatiques du Diois, which specialises in essential oils and plants from biological agriculture.
