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, and Dansk Handels- og Industri Company. 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 focuses on industrial biotechnology and encompasses business segments such as Fabric and Household Care, Technical Enzymes, and Food and Animal Nutrition. Danisco also had two biochemical projects: DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, a biofuels joint venture with DuPont, and a project with Goodyear to develop a new type of synthetic rubber, called bioIsoprene. On 9 January 2011, DuPont announced that it had reached agreement to buy Danisco for US$6.3 billion. The acquisition was motivated by a desire by DuPont "to gain production of food additives and enzymes used in biofuels." On 16 May 2011 DuPont announced that its tender offer for Danisco had been successful and that it would proceed to redeem the remaining shares and delist the company. The food ingredients and enzyme businesses were combined with similar pre-existing efforts at DuPont into two business divisions named 'Nutrition and Health' and 'Industrial Biotechnologies'.
Research and development
A considerable number of the employees are engaged in research and development of new products for the internationalfood industry. Today, the Group holds more than 9,300 active patents and patent applications. Their work led to the understanding of the mechanism of CRISPR, the bacterial antiviral defense. CRISPR is a prokaryotic immune system that is both adaptive and inheritable.
