DSM-Firmenich beat market expectations for second-quarter core earnings, with fragrance leading the way on broad-based volume growth.
The question for the second half is whether the scent boom can absorb rising raw material costs without denting the margins that made the quarter a winner.
The demand story is familiar: prestige perfume has been the luxury sector’s most resilient category, buoyed by Gen Z’s appetite for scent as an affordable entry point into fashion.
The Swiss-Dutch ingredients group said full-year sales growth should land at the upper end of its target range, a signal that the perfume boom has not yet peaked.
Fragrance has become the group’s engine room, supplying the molecules behind everything from designer eaux to mass-market body sprays.
With volume growth broad-based across regions, the results suggest the category is still expanding rather than merely holding.
