Letter to our stakeholders

Our second year was marked by decisive actions to reshape our organization. We were guided in this by our purpose of bringing progress to life through sustainable, innovation-driven growth. In doing so, we are creating a Category of One company that brings solutions to market that combine the essential, the desirable and the sustainable.

A crucial decision was to seek a separate destiny to our Animal Nutrition & Health (ANH) unit. It is an outstanding, world-leading business, but it has distinct characteristics from our other activities. This led us to the conclusion that it would thrive better outside dsm-firmenich.

Growing momentum and improving performance

2024 was characterized by a progressive improvement in our overall financial results, with strong performances in Perfumery & Beauty as well as in Taste, Texture & Health, improved organic sales growth in Health, Nutrition & Care, and improving momentum in Animal Nutrition & Health.

The sum of those efforts and events culminated in an Adjusted EBITDA of approximately €2.1 billion, a 19% increase from 2023. At the Annual General Meeting on 6 May, 2025, the Board of Directors will propose a stable dividend of €2.50 per share for the financial year 2024.

Merger synergies

An important contributor to our overall performance was the range of synergy initiatives that were already launched in 2023, designed both to deliver cost savings and to leverage new sales opportunities. These actions delivered an Adjusted EBITDA contribution of approximately €100 million in 2024, on track to reach a targeted annual Adjusted EBITDA figure of €350 million by 2027–2028.

Next step: accelerating our growth

At our Capital Markets Day in June 2024, we presented our strategy, outlining a clear path and key milestones. We will build on our already strong position in nutrition, health, and beauty by concentrating on three macro-trends:

• Increasing focus on lifespan vitality
• Growing awareness of the potential of preventative healthcare
• Rising expectations concerning well-being

These trends are driven by increasing demand for a holistic approach to well-being. They offer opportunities in high-growth, high-margin segments, and we have the skills and knowledge to expand strongly within these markets. Our acceleration will be driven not only by our capabilities, but also by our culture, which is grounded in three company values: ‘Shape the future,’ ‘Be a force for good,’ and ‘Own the outcome.’ Living out these values makes us breakthrough innovators, courageous decision-makers, and reliable partners. Day-in day-out, we work to deliver innovative solutions that create powerful differentiation for our customers while balancing the needs of People and Planet.

Innovation-driven growth

Innovation remains the cornerstone of our growth. We continuously invest in Science & Research: in 2024, we spent €796 million on R&D. Our innovation pipeline is driven by our eight cutting-edge science capabilities: chemical and process sciences, nutritional and food sciences, formulation and materials science, analytical sciences, artificial intelligence and data science, receptor biology and sensory sciences, microbiome, and biotechnology.

In 2024, we made 164 new first-patent publications and continued to introduce exciting new innovations to the market across nutrition, health, and beauty. You will discover more about these remarkable advancements in our Report.

Sustainability

In 2024, our climate targets were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), including an ambitious target of achieving net-zero emissions across our full value chain by 2045. In parallel, we continued to build our nature program, tightly interlinked with our climate programs, to protect and restore nature as a permanent source of innovation, input, and inspiration for our scientific and creative thinking. We also made good progress with key employee and safety programs in 2024. In addition, we also achieved significant milestones in our malnutrition programs and are pleased to confirm the continuation of our partnership with the UN World Food Programme for a further three-year term from 2025 through 2027.

Starting this year, we present our Sustainability Statements in accordance with the requirements of the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), thereby further increasing transparency regarding our sustainability efforts.

Strategic growth investments

As a global player in nutrition, health, and beauty, we continued to invest in our businesses during 2024. For example:

• We inaugurated two fragrance ingredient plants in southwest France, supporting our strategic perfumery ambitions to facilitate the use of sustainable ingredients
• We are constructing a production plant for flavors in Karawang (Indonesia), which is planned to be operational in 2026
• We began construction of a new biomedical facility in Pennsylvania (USA), which will enable us to expand our offer in biomedical technologies in the course of 2025
• In Sadat City (Egypt), we opened a new premix and additives plant, underscoring our commitment to meeting the growing demand from livestock farms and feed mills across Egypt, the Middle East, Southern Europe, and Africa
• We opened our new Science & Research center in San Diego (California, USA). At this facility, our teams are investigating receptor biology – a field of study that is unlocking innovations in taste and health, among many other areas

Governance

The Board of Directors held 10 meetings in 2024, while the Board Committees each met four to eight times. The full details can be found in the Governance & Risk Management chapter of this Report.

The Board of Directors dealt in detail with all the key strategic topics, monitored the financial performance and gave special attention to human resources and succession related topics. It continued to scrutinize quality, safety, and compliance matters at every meeting. The Board is committed to ensure the company has a culture of ethical excellence. In furtherance of this, it expects its employees to uphold the highest legal and ethical business practices, as enshrined in our Code of Business Ethics. We continue to collaborate with the competition authorities following the launch of their investigation in the fragrance industry in 2023.

Pradeep Pant, Member of the Board of Directors, retired from his position in 2024 due to the statutory age limitation. We warmly thank him for his distinguished service and highly valued contributions. The full Board of Directors will stand for re-election at the Annual General Meeting of 2025.

Looking ahead

As we reflect on the achievements of 2024, we have much to look back on with pride. We would like to extend an immense thank-you to our stakeholders – shareholders, customers, suppliers, and partners – and of course to our employees, without whom the achievements of 2024 would not have been possible. We are excited about the prospect of accelerating our efforts in the coming years.

Warm regards,
Thomas Leysen and Dimitri de Vreeze