Partnership Will Expand Innovation Across Beverage, Confectionery, and Coatings
Blue Pacific Flavors, a pioneer in natural and organic flavor systems, is entering a new era of global flavor innovation through its acquisition by Capol, a company of the Freudenberg Group, effective September 1, 2025. This strategic acquisition combines leading expertise in beverages, confectionery, and coatings to create a global food ingredient leader with complementary strengths — accelerating innovation in flavors, coatings, and product development across the food and beverage industry. Donald Wilkes will continue as CEO of Blue Pacific Flavors, and the company’s management team and employees remain unchanged, ensuring seamless continuity for customers while adding the scale and resources of a global group. The parties have agreed not to disclose financial details of the transaction.
Donald Wilkes will continue as CEO of Blue Pacific Flavors, and the company’s management team and employees remain unchanged, ensuring seamless continuity for customers while adding the scale and resources of a global group. The parties have agreed not to disclose financial details of the transaction.
By uniting deep category expertise across beverage, confectionery, and coatings, the transaction positions the Capol group to serve global food manufacturers with an unmatched spectrum of flavor innovation and surface treatments while expanding its high-quality service and supply throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.
“This is an exciting new chapter for Blue Pacific,” said Donald Wilkes, CEO of Blue Pacific Flavors. “Our Farm to Flavor story will now be amplified through world-class infrastructure and global reach. Together with Capol, we can deliver greater innovation, faster speed to market, and enhanced value for our customers — while staying true to our roots in clean-label, natural flavor development. Importantly, this partnership also expands our manufacturing footprint into Europe, giving customers more flexibility, supply security, and global scale.”
Founded in 1993 and headquartered in California, USA, Blue Pacific Flavors has built a reputation for agility, customer-centricity, and clean-label innovation, particularly in the beverage segment and emerging wellness categories. Customers of Blue Pacific Flavors will continue working with their trusted teams, now supported by expanded global resources.
“The integration of Blue Pacific Flavors marks a pivotal moment in our shared journey to build a truly global food ingredients platform with flavors and surface treatments,” said Peter Hantl, CEO of Capol. “Together, we will deliver broader, faster, and more sustainable solutions to customers worldwide, spanning sweets to beverages, coatings to flavor systems.”
Capol, headquartered in Elmshorn, Germany, is a premier manufacturer of added-value food ingredient solutions and global leader in confectionery coatings. As part of the Freudenberg Group, Capol has been expanding its capabilities in natural food colors and flavor innovation, most recently through the acquisition of Curt Georgi in July 2025, a 150-year-old tradition-rich German flavor house, renowned for technical mastery across confectionery, dairy, and baked goods.
The combined strengths of these highly successful flavor companies together with Capol creates a food ingredients powerhouse that spans three continents, offering customers expanded product development capabilities and faster speed to market. Together, the group is set to:
- Unlock new opportunities in health, wellness, and indulgence categories
- Expand market access for global and regional brands
- Foster innovation through cross-category collaboration
Parent company Freudenberg, a globally active technology group, provides long-term stability and commitment to scale the operations, based on strong global reach and infrastructure.
“This acquisition reflects our strategic focus on supporting high-performing businesses with the capabilities and reach to lead in their markets,” said Filip Krulis, CEO of Freudenberg Chemical Specialities. “Building on our recent expansion in Europe’s flavor market, this move further strengthens our product and regional diversification strategy allowing us to deliver even more relevant, innovative solutions to customers across the food and beverage industry.”
“We are delighted to welcome Blue Pacific Flavors to Capol and the Freudenberg Group as we continue to expand our food ingredients business,” said Dr. Sebastian Weiss, CFO of Freudenberg Chemical Specialities. “It is a pleasure to welcome our valued new colleagues into the Capol and Freudenberg family. We look forward to growing our flavor business together, leveraging the expertise of Donald Wilkes and the entire Blue Pacific Flavors team.”
About Blue Pacific Flavors
Founded in 1993 in Los Angeles, Blue Pacific Flavors is a global leader in natural, organic, and cleanlabel flavor systems. Guided by its Farm to Flavor philosophy, Blue Pacific blends California fruit heritage with advanced flavor science to create delicious, functional, and sustainable flavor solutions. The company is recognized for its world-class beverage and food product development capabilities, supporting customers in creating innovative, clean-label products that meet evolving consumer needs. Blue Pacific Flavors operates facilities in North America and China.
About Capol
Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Germany, Capol is a premier manufacturer of added-value food ingredient solutions and global leader in surface treatments for the confectionery industry, offering glazing, anti-sticking, and sealing agents used worldwide. A business unit of Freudenberg Chemical Specialities, Capol is part of the Freudenberg Group and serves clients in over 100 countries with a portfolio of more than 250 innovative solutions. Capol operates facilities in Europe and North America.
