Danisco

Danisco A/S is a Danish bio-based company with activities in food production, enzymes and other bioproducts as well as a wide variety of pharmaceutical grade excipients. It was formed in 1989 from the largest Danish industrial merger ever of the two old C.F. Tietgen companies Danish Sugar (founded 1872), and Dansk Handels- og Industri Company (Danisco A/S).

Danisco was one of the world's leading producers of ingredients for food and other consumer products and was also one of the biggest sugar producers in Europe until the divestment of its sugar division to Nordzucker in 2009.

Headquartered in Copenhagen, the group has approximately 6,800 employees in more than 80 locations in 40 countries.

Danisco shares were listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange and a member of the blue chip OMX Copenhagen 20 index until June 2011, when DuPont completed a US$6.3 billion acquisition of the company.

Activities

The company's activities were structured into two lines of business: Food Ingredients and Industrial Enzymes. The Food Ingredients business supplied bio-based ingredients for food and beverage products and comprises the business segments Enablers, Cultures and Sweeteners, while the Industrial Enzymes business (handled by daughter company Genencor) focuses on industrial biotechnology and encompasses business segments such as Fabric and Household Care (enzymes for laundry and dishwashing detergents), Technical Enzymes (enzymes for bioethanol and carbohydrate processing as well as textile treatment), and Food and Animal Nutrition (enzymes for bread, feed and brewing applications).