It’s a site you may not expect 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 has its biggest perfumery plant in the world, and conducts a huge part of its manufacturing and R&D. (dsm-firmenich’s headquarters are in Kaiseraugst, in Northern Switzerland.)
In one wing of the sprawling site, a few dozen so-called “Master Perfumers” mix vials to create the next Acqua di Gio or CK One luxury perfume, or 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 further out, there’s a much more conventional factory site, where giant industrial mixers mass-produce dsm-firmenich’s scents. A few workers overlook the process. Others pick the fluids up in trucks and send them across Europe and the world.
In another, central building, the factory workers, master perfumers, and office workers all mingle over lunch. In a way, 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.
