Dear Valued Sensient Customer,

As we move into the fifth month of the COVID-19 crisis, I write to confirm that Sensient will continue to operate and to provide you with the ingredients that are essential to many of your products and businesses. Reliability is what you need right now. Sensient has provided that reliability and assurance from the beginning of this crisis, so that you can focus on your customers’ more pressing needs. I know your time is valuable, so let me focus on what you need to know about our ability to support you:

• Plant Operations: 100% of our 30 + production facilities throughout the world are running. We maintain production redundancy across the majority of our critical products.
• On-Time Delivery: We have achieved nearly 94% on time delivery based on our customers’ request dates since January 1. This includes meeting a significant number of requests with less than 48 hour lead time, unprecedented movements in the delivery dates, and significant transportation shortages throughout Asia.  
• Proactivity: We purchased significant amounts of raw material, well before the pandemic escalated, to ensure that our on-time performance remained consistent. We continue to monitor levels, up to six months into the future. We also contacted many of our customers to place advance orders, before there was a significant demand spike in the market and transportation shortages. We will continue to alert you of potential transportation delays.
• Staffing Levels: Our production facilities and laboratories have maintained an attendance rate of better than 95%, on average. We have not closed any facility due to COVID-19 exposure.
• Safety: Our sites have augmented our already robust GMP and sanitation practices with additional cleaning and disinfection protocols, temperature and symptom checks, social distancing, and most recently, masks. Employees who are sick must stay home. We successfully transitioned employees who can work from home to remote work. We are fully committed to ensuring that our employees are not getting sick at Sensient facilities.
• Service: We have conducted dozens of customer training sessions on color, flavor, and personal care products, technologies, trends, and applications. Many of your people have attended these sessions and these will continue.

But it’s not all perfect. Areas of concern that we are seeing right now in our business and working to address include:

• Significant delays of raw materials from India stemming from a near total country lockdown.
• China production and outbound shipping are rebounding, but there are still delays to consider.
• Reserving air freight is a challenge in nearly all regions.
• As employees return to work throughout the world, we anticipate a shortage of masks and other personal protective equipment that will more than likely be required in all work places.

With plants throughout the world, including China, Italy, Spain, and New Jersey, we have been at the front lines of this pandemic. We have successfully continued operations in the world’s hot spots. Our employees take very seriously our mission as a manufacturer of ingredients for essential food, pharmaceutical, and personal care products. Their courage and commitment has fueled our continued strong on-time delivery performance and consistent staffing levels. We will continue to deliver, because we know our customers and our communities depend on us.

Your existing Sensient contacts continue to work, and they are standing by to lend whatever support you require. We will continue to discuss floor stocks, forecasting needs, and other supply chain support initiatives with your businesses. Let us know if we can assist in any other way to meet your needs.

Regards,

Paul Manning
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Sensient Technologies Corporation