Swiss multinational Givaudan is seriously invested in the Gulf—a region it says is brimming with fragrance innovation, unbeatable consumption, and growth promise. It is fast becoming a hotspot for fragrance with all of the major fragrance houses establishing operations in the region, and many Middle Eastern fragrance brands now competing on the global stage. So, what is it about this region—six markets rooted in a rich fragrance heritage—that is seeing multinational suppliers flock to it?
One of the world's largest fragrance manufacturers, Givaudan, has been operating in the GCC region for close to three decades, but has ramped up investments in the last five years. Today, its global fine fragrance business is worth more than $1 billion and represents a significant slice of its wider $9.4 billion flavor and fragrance portfolio. In 2025, sales across the Swiss multinational's fine fragrance unit surged 18.3%, the largest growth across its entire fragrance and beauty business.
Despite playing on a very global stage, Givaudan sees the GCC as a significant innovation hotspot for fine fragrances. “There's probably more competition out there than anywhere else in the world, when it comes to fragrance houses and fragrance manufacturing,” said Xavier Renard, Global Head of Fine Fragrances at Givaudan. “Arab people love fragrances. And they pay more attention to what a fragrance smells like, as opposed to the brand or packaging,” Renard told BeautyMatter.
This attention to detail around fragrance quality, scent profiles, and olfactive nuances means there are plenty of innovation opportunities when working in the GCC. The population here views fragrances very differently from how Europeans and Americans do, Renard explained. In the GCC, fragrance is woven intricately into everyday lives and forms a significant “part of the culture.”
Many people will start their day with bakhoor—a traditional Middle Eastern incense made from a blend of aromatic materials—to scent homes, hair, clothes, purify the air, and create a peaceful ambiance. A lot of bakhoor blends are even passed down through generations, providing families and homes with signature scents. Individuals will then use a fragrance in the morning and another two hours later, and so forth. “Saudi people have 12 to 14 fragrances in their home,” said Renard. Whereas most bathrooms in Europe and North America feature just two or three scents. “... Layering in Saudi is the name of the game; it's been like this for years. The volume, the consumption—everything is bigger.”
And perhaps this is what has drawn vast numbers of fragrance multinationals and investment to the region.
Givaudan has been “seriously investing in the GCC region over the last five years,” Renard said, largely because of the size of fragrances here, the speed of growth, and how innovative local and regional brands are when it comes to new product design and development.
Brands are “leveraging the codes of Middle East fragrances,” he said, with significant investment and innovation around fragrances with a strong signature, which are easy to read and are memorable.
Middle Eastern fragrance brands “invest in the juice,” the executive said, “because they know if they want to make a difference to the consumer, and if they want to compete with the international brands from the big groups, they have to really please the consumer with fragrances that are different, at an affordable price.”
Renard said regional brands have actually created and filled a white space in global fragrances, exporting “products that did not exist before.” “It's the iPhone of perfumery,” he quipped. “If you asked consumers what they want, I don't think they would have told you. But [these brands] gave those consumers a very, very, very good product with very interesting packaging at a very affordable price.”
UAE success stories include Dubai-based perfume brands Lattafa and Armaf, both of which now ship worldwide to 100-150 countries. Lattafa, he said, is now the #1 selling fragrance on Amazon in the US. “Those brands have been leveraging what we call the codes of the Middle East fragrances to truly influence the rest of the world.”
In Saudi Arabia, Renard said Deraah, Al Majed, and Laverne are strong, local brands, though growth here has largely remained focused on the domestic market because “the consumption is there.”
“We have a tendency to put all those brands into one basket, when in reality they are quite different.” The UAE and Saudi Arabia are two very different fragrance machines, he said.
Currently, Saudi Arabia remains very local and inward-focused in fragrances because local perfume consumption remains significant, the executive said. “In Saudi Arabia, you have 35 million people, but it's 35 million people using four times more fragrance than anyone in Europe or the US (…). You take your 35 million and all of a sudden Saudi becomes a country the size of 140 million people in terms of fragrance consumption; it's huge.”
Regional brands here have been growing significantly, he said, with many also moving online to reach younger consumers on social platforms. But the fragrance business in Saudi, he said, may need to shift outwards, given expansion and growth for brands has “almost reached a plateau.” Brands, he said, will soon need to explore new growth avenues, and that inevitably leads to going international—“something that the UAE brands have done already, a long time ago.”
The UAE fragrance market, Renard said, has long been outward-looking and focused on exporting perfumes worldwide, largely because the UAE is a “very, very small geography.”
What is common across both markets, however, is the attention to detail in perfumery, the level of investment in fragrance development, and the respect and focus given to the consumer, he said.
Givaudan's Fine Fragrance Center, based in Dubai, is designed to serve the GCC market and the wider South Asia, Middle East, and Africa region, as well as global markets. The center now has close to 50 employees dedicated to fine fragrances, forming an important part of the company's global innovation network.
“Our strategy is to truly have one global fine fragrance business unit, in many different locations around the world,” Renard said. Dubai-based perfumers, for example, will work on projects for Singapore or Sao Paolo, and Paris-based perfumers will work on projects for the UAE, particularly when local knowledge is key to a project. And this “back and forth” flow between local fine fragrance teams, he said, has proven key to the business unit's success over the last five years.
Having an on-the-ground presence spread out across different markets brings significant advantages, the executive said. The Dubai team, for example, has good proximity to customers in the GCC and wider Middle East, providing the “speed and agility that is required when doing business in this region.” They also bring consumer and brand knowledge, which is critical to new product development.
The center in Dubai also provides a superb gateway to South Asia, Africa, and India, Renard said, which will be a core focus for Givaudan in the coming years. Over the next 5 to 10 years, he said India and Africa should become important and exciting fragrance markets; Indonesia will likely grow too. When the 1.4 billion Indian population starts using fragrances, “that's going to be a different ballgame,” the executive said. “There's an appetite for fragrances, but we're not there yet. It's started a little bit, but we need to wait a few more years.”
In the GCC region, Renard said Givaudan's investments will continue. The goal is to push growth here even further—beyond its solid double-digit growth achieved thus far.
