More than 130 years of industry leadership.
We began in 1882 as Meadow Springs Distillery, a maker of whiskey and gin. When Prohibition arrived in 1919, Meadow Springs had already evolved to become Red Star Yeast & Products Company.
During the 1960s, Red Star Yeast evolved from a single-product line producer to a highly diversified food company, changing its name to Universal Foods to emphasize its planned growth in operations. Universal Foods became a member of the New York Stock Exchange. However, as a producer of commodity products, Universal Foods had limited growth opportunities.
Over the next several decades, the company divested its commodity segments and acquired dozens of companies, all of which offered strategic products and innovative solutions. This was a major transformation that advanced the organization to its current structure and strategy.
In 2000, Universal Foods changed its name to Sensient® Technologies to reflect its expanded focus and sold Red Star Yeast in 2001 as part of a strategy to divest itself of unprofitable commodity businesses.
Today, we are a transformed company.
Sensient® is a global developer and marketer of high-performance, technology-based color and flavor systems. Our global operations allow us to serve customers in more than 150 nations with annual revenues surpassing $1.5 billion.