- CEO
- Stephen Edward Foots
- Full Time Employees
- 6,027
- Sector
- Basic Materials
- Industry
- Chemicals - Specialty
- Address
- Cowick Hall Goole United Kingdom DN14 9AA
- IPO Date
- Aug 3, 2012
- Business
- Croda International Plc (COIHY) is a global specialty chemicals company that develops, manufactures and supplies innovative, high-value ingredients for use in low concentrations to deliver critical functionality in customer formulations across life sciences, consumer care and industrial specialties. The company operates through three main segments: Consumer Care, which provides specialty ingredients and formulations for home care, beauty and personal care, and fragrances; Life Sciences, offering pharmaceutical excipients, vaccine adjuvants, lipid delivery systems, crop protection solutions, seed enhancements and biopesticides; and Industrial Specialties, supplying formulation ingredients for coatings, textiles, fibres, water treatment and other niche markets. Key products include renowned surfactant ranges such as Tween, Brij and Myrj; Super Refined pharmaceutical excipients; high-purity lipids for nucleic acid-based drugs; and sustainable technologies aligned with health, crop sustainability and consumer demands.
Founded in 1925 and headquartered at Cowick Hall in Goole, East Yorkshire, United Kingdom, Croda employs over 6,100 people and maintains manufacturing sites, laboratories and offices across Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, South America and Australia, with approximately 60% of sales generated outside Europe. The company serves diverse customers including manufacturers in personal care, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, home care and industrial applications, focusing on sustainable, high-performance solutions driven by its purpose of using smart science to improve lives. Notable subsidiaries and acquisitions integrated into its portfolio include Iberchem for fragrances and flavours, Avanti Polar Lipids for life sciences, Solus Biotech for biotechnology R&D in Asia, Alban Muller, Parfex and others enhancing capabilities in vaccines, crop care and encapsulation technologies.
In recent developments, Croda completed the acquisition of Solus Biotech in July 2023, establishing a new biotechnology R&D hub and expanding manufacturing in South Korea; acquired Parfex to bolster Iberchem's fragrances offerings; and opened an expanded Super Refined manufacturing facility in Leek, UK, in May 2025, enhancing global high-purity excipient supply capabilities. The company sold the majority of its industrial businesses to Cargill in 2022, retaining a focused subsegment under Industrial Specialties, and continues a £175 million Pharma capacity scale-up programme for lipids, supported by £75 million in UK and US government grants, with key assets commissioning in 2025. Additionally, Croda targets £25 million in permanent cost savings in 2025 as part of a £40 million two-year programme, alongside sales growth from new and protected products now comprising 35% of total sales, and reported 6.5% constant-currency sales growth in Q3 2025 driven by beauty and life sciences.