Moellhausen

Overview

Moellhausen is an independent, family-owned Italian manufacturer of fragrances and fragrance-and-flavour raw materials, founded in 1967 and based in the Milan metropolitan area. Now in its third generation of family leadership, the company operates across four areas: finished fragrances, F&F raw materials, techno-specialties, and taste-nutrition-health ingredients. It works with a networked manufacturing system spanning more than 200 partner producers in around 40 countries, maintaining a catalogue of over 1,600 raw materials and more than 14,000 coded sample references.

History

Moellhausen was founded in 1967 in the Milan area by the Moellhausen family, establishing itself from the outset as an Italian supplier of fragrance and flavour raw materials to industrial buyers across Europe and beyond.

Over its first decades the company expanded internationally, building a trade network across multiple continents while keeping ownership and creative direction within the family. The company grew across three generations, with each successive generation broadening the product portfolio and the geographic reach of its supply chain.

In more recent years Moellhausen invested in upgrading its industrial infrastructure, relocating its primary hub to a new purpose-built facility in Caponago, Lombardy - presented publicly at Esxence 2026 as a symbol of the company's next phase. The Caponago site houses R&D laboratories, automated compounding equipment, and logistics warehouses, anchoring a distributed production network that also includes offices in Dubai.

Signature & specialties

Moellhausen operates across two main B2B verticals. Its fragrances division creates finished fragrance compounds for fine perfumery, personal care, home care, and technical applications, with compositions developed by in-house perfumers including Dominique Moellhausen and Simone Lo Bue. The F&F materials division distributes a broad catalogue of essential oils, absolutes, concretes, resinoids, aroma chemicals, and synthetic specialties to fragrance and flavour manufacturers worldwide.

The company's catalogue of over 1,600 raw materials spans natural extracts and synthetic aroma chemicals, supported by an R&D function that develops alternative or modified ingredients for improved sustainability compatibility and application performance. A stock of more than 14,000 coded sample references is held ready for rapid dispatch, underpinned by a global sourcing strategy that accounts for crop seasonality, exchange-rate risk, and geopolitical supply factors.

Moellhausen is a member of the Fragrance Foundation Deutschland and participates in major industry gatherings including Esxence in Milan and the Duftstars Awards in Dusseldorf, positioning itself as a mid-sized independent house at the intersection of Italian creative tradition and international industrial distribution.