Associate scientist Jennifer White, flavorist Susan Kratz and senior flavorist John Houtenville work in a lab at Wild Flavors Inc. in Erlanger. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

By Mike Boyer
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati's beer-brewing heritage gets all the publicity, but it's the city's ties to the whiskey business that are still paying major economic dividends.

A German chemist named Alex Fries and his brother began providing flavorings in 1854 for whiskey makers across the Ohio River in Kentucky.

That company, Alex Fries Inc., is now part of German specialty chemical giant Degussa AG and still operates in Woodlawn. It's one of the oldest flavor makers in the United States and the foundation for Cincinnati's position as a focal point for the U.S. flavor industry.

"Cincinnati is certainly the No. 1 city in the flavor industry in the United States,'' says John Cassens, a New Jersey-based flavor industry consultant who is writing a book on the history of the U.S. flavor industry.

Mr. Cassens, who spoke on the history of the industry this week at a meeting of the Ohio Valley Chapter of the Institute of Food Technologists in Cincinnati, says that while New Jersey has traditionally had the largest concentration of flavor companies, Ohio probably ranks second.

The Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, which has begun to focus on the industry as an economic development target, estimates there are more than 1,000 people in the region employed by flavor makers.

"These are technical, well-paid positions, but many don't recognize the city is key to the North American flavor industry,'' said Jessica Michaels, director of client management for the chamber's economic development department.

The list includes:

• Degussa Flavors and Fruits, which employs 350 in Woodlawn and Monroe.

• Bond Hill-based Givaudan Flavors, the North American headquarters for the Swiss-based company. It employs more than 600 in Greater Cincinnati and has passed International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. as the largest flavor maker.

• Mane-Seafla, a French company and one of the largest flavor makers, which has a U.S. headquarters and research center in Milford.

• Wild Flavors Inc., whose Erlanger plant and research center employs 260 and is the North American headquarters for the German-based Wild Group. It supplies flavors for food and beverage makers worldwide.

Michael Ponder, president of Wild Flavors, says Cincinnati is attractive for flavor companies for a number of reasons.

"There's a historic base here,'' he said. "And this is a good place to live and work.''

Wild this week marked the fifth anniversary of opening its $40 million center by hosting about two dozen flavor trade journalists to unveil a major new study on what attributes consumers' prefer in their drinks.

Cincinnati's more central location makes it more attractive to ship in raw materials and ship out finished products, Mr. Ponder said.

Tom Damiano, president of Degussa's flavor sales organization, said that when the German-based company acquired Alex Fries in 1999, it made sense to move its American headquarters here.

"There's a talent pool here,'' he said, and the cost of doing business in New Jersey is higher.

Within the flavor industry, Cincinnati's prominence has been known for decades.

Alex Fries Inc. begat Fries & Fries, which was operated for many years by industry innovator Robert Fries. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, that company now is part of Givaudan.

Another Alex Fries spin-off, Cino Co. in the 1920s, eventually became part of F&C International in Woodlawn.

That company was briefly a highflier on Wall Street before an accounting fraud forced it into bankruptcy in the early 1990s.

Wild acquired the remnants of F&C out of bankruptcy in 1994 to form the basis of its North American business.

The industry's historical development through spin-offs and mergers is interesting because the global flavor industry, estimated at between $11 billion and $14 billion in size, is going through a period of consolidation.

For example, Givaudan this year acquired Nestle's flavor business.

But even as the big companies get bigger, new businesses emerge.

"There's always room for niche players. Every time two companies combine, it seems like three more pop up,'' said William Baker, vice president of Flavor Systems International, a West Chester-based flavor company spun off from Berghausen Corp. in 1994.

Flavor Systems, which employs fewer than 50 and has sales under $10 million, is an example of niche player.

The company, which traces its roots to General Flavoring and Extract Co. started in 1926 in Cincinnati, focuses on supplying coffee flavorings and specialty seasonings.

Another trend is that flavor companies are playing a larger role in product development for their customers.

In the past, says Victor Levey, consultant to Degussa and former owner of Alex Fries, food companies would contract for specific ingredients, such as a garlic taste in a new product.

But today, he said, food and beverage companies are asking flavor companies to develop entire formulation for new products - in a sense, outsourcing the product development.

For example, John Bello, the marketer who developed the popular SoBe brand of natural beverages, relied on Wild Flavors to create all the flavors for the drink line.

SoBe, acquired by PepsiCo two years ago, even relied on Wild to oversee quality control at the third-party firms that bottled the drinks, Mr. Ponder said.

E-mail mboyer@enquirer.com

Secrecy permeates flavor business