Our COVID response

As COVID-19 continues to impact our lives, Givaudan maintains its response by prioritising the health and wellbeing of our employees, supporting our customers and communities, and remaining a resilient business.

Supporting our customers

We are proud to play our role as part of the critical infrastructure, supplying much needed flavours and fragrances for food, hygiene and sanitation products, amongst other items. Through close collaboration with our suppliers and customers, and the resilience that has been demonstrated across the supply chain, we have helped to ensure product availability – even when demand has soared.

Taking care of our people

From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic we put in place comprehensive health and safety measures to protect our colleagues. These include flexible working hours/adapted work patterns, heightened hygiene and sanitation measures, strict access control to our production sites, smaller team working, travel restrictions and the use and supply of masks to keep our colleagues and their families safe. 

As part of the ongoing global response to this crisis, we will continue to put employee wellbeing at the heart of everything we do. We launched our Happier, Healthier You campaign – a comprehensive wellbeing initiative which focused on helping to integrate wellbeing into our day, whether we are in the office, lab factory, or working from home. This is an important part of our approach to help ensure that every member of our team can take care of their physical and mental health as we continue to respond to the pandemic and as we continue to create for happier, healthier lives with love for nature.

Helping impacted communities

Now more than ever, we believe that it is vital that businesses across the globe redefine their role in building an inclusive and equitable society. In March 2020, we set up the Givaudan COVID-19 Communities Fund to enable our sites to support local communities that have been affected by the crisis. We have since provided additional targeted support to countries most severely impacted by the crisis in 2021.

The fund has allowed our teams to nominate communities, charities, or services that are in need of additional support. For example, by providing medical and other essential supplies, providing practical support and expertise and providing other essential funding or services.

Our employees are passionate about helping us to act as a force for good and we continue to be inspired about how they are rising to this unprecedented challenge. Since the fund’s launch and through their amazing work, we have been able to provide more than 130 communities worldwide with vital support, including funding for medical equipment and food supplies.

From helping construct temporary hospital facilities in Lagos, to working with families in Vietnam to keep children in education through lockdown, to providing food supplies to communities in Brazil, we’re so proud of their vision and the impacts our teams have achieved.

Watch our film to find out more about some of the projects we have supported and to hear first-hand testimonials from Givaudan employees.

Watch our testimonials

Joining global efforts on hand sanitiser

In addition to our work through the Givaudan COVID-19 Communities Fund we also joined global efforts to provide hand sanitiser for medical, community and front line service needs with a new dedicated production line established in our Vernier (Geneva) site, donating the equivalent of 1.5 million bottles (based on the average bottle of hand sanitiser being 100ml).

Beneficiaries of the hand sanitiser included hospitals, including in the Geneva and Vaud cantons close to Givaudan’s Vernier site, local transport partners to our sites including airports, public transportation, NGOs and small associations, and important local services which are all supporting the pandemic efforts. 

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