Editor's Notesby Dr Tony Curtis - Perfumery education and training ...

Where are they now?Former Perfumery Student Ashish JhunjhunwallaIcompleted my BA (Hons) Business ofPerfumery degree from the Universityof Plymouth in 2001. This degreehas broadened my horizons in the fieldof Perfumery and Aroma trades andat the same time provided me with aninsight on general business trends aroundthe world.I developed an understanding ofseveral complex fields varying fromInternational Marketing and CorporateStrategy to Human Resources andOperations Management. This degreehad given me the ideal education that isnecessary for any person to carry out anybusiness activity within the Fragrance &Flavour and overall Aroma Industry.The degree was a sandwichprogramme with a one year placementin a fragrance company. I got anopportunity to work at IFF Sales office inHammersmith, London. The placementbestowed upon me prospects ofworking in different areas of FragranceDevelopment and Marketing - myresponsibilities included fragranceselection and evaluation for PrivateLabel business in the UK, working crosscategory for Personal, Fabric and HomeCare Fragrances. It really gave me ahands-on experience of understandinghow the fragrance and fragrancedproducts market works. It also gave mean International exposure as I got tospend several weeks in Hilversum (TheNetherlands) as a Trainee Evaluatorand also worked on several projectsfor the Iranian market. My placementended with a two month experience inProject Co-ordination for designing anew Creative Centre for IFF at Mumbai(India).This placement along with mydegree from Plymouth, was the idealcombination which made me competentenough to enter the Fragrance businessafter my graduation. I was appointed asthe Fragrance Evaluation Manager atIFF, UK immediately after I graduated. Iworked there for about two years beforeI was moved to IFF Hilversum as one oftheir Fragrance Development Managers.My job at Hilversum focussed on theHome Care category and I handledvarious clients’ projects throughoutEurope and the UK. My role involvedcomplete co-ordination of any fragrancedevelopment project so I was constantlyworking with the Perfumers and otherCo-evaluators while juggling between theSales and the Marketing teams. This wasan excellent experience as I also managedto work with the Product Applicationsand the Technical Stability teams. Thosetwo years were the most crucial learningphase of my career.I ended up moving back to Indiaand despite pressures from my previousemployers to join them at their IndianHeadquarters, I decided to join myfamily business which was a very smallfragrance manufacturing and tradingcompany in the Indian market.My experiences with Plymouth andIFF helped me to change the workingscenario in my family organisation AFFAromatics Pvt. Ltd. After working withthe company for more than six yearsas Business Development Manager, weare now one of the major FragranceHouses in India designing fragrancesfor all product applications. We are alsogrowing Internationally with marketpresence in the Middle East and arecurrently constructing India’s firstunique and state-of-the-art FragranceBoutique which will include FragranceManufacturing and R&D facilities atKolkata.Contact: ashish@affaromatics.comStop Press!ICATS courseupdate - flavoursWe have just received the final filefor the second new flavour module‘Application of Flavours to FlavouredProducts’.Registrations will be accepted forthe new ICATS flavour pathway in lateMarch 2012.Events calendarMay 2012British Society of Perfumers ‘NewMaterials for the Perfumer’ annualsymposium, May 12th 2012. Furtherinformation is available from the BritishSociety of Perfumers website.The author of the latest moduleis John Wright. He has worked as aflavourist for over 30 years, initially withDuckworths and PFW in the UK, thenBush Boake Allen in Canada, UK andUSA. He was responsible for R&D inBBA and global flavour creation andapplications in IFF.The 2nd edition of his book ‘FlavorCreation’ was published in 2010 and isthe set text for the new module. John ranthe one-day Flavour Workshop at theIFEAT Barcelona Conference 2011.July 2012A two-day IFEAT / ICATS workshop‘Introduction to Perfumery’ is planned tobe held in July. Further information willbe available from the ICATS website inFebruary.November 2012The IFEAT 2012 annual conferencewill be held in Singapore November 4thto November 8th. Further informationwill be available on the IFEAT websitein the spring of 2012. An ICATS oneday conference workshop ‘Introductionto Perfumery’ is planned for Wednesday7th November 2012.Further information about the workshopwill be available from the ICATS websitein the spring of 2012.