Quest International and DigiScents Form Alliance

Quest International and DigiScents, Inc. have formed a strategic alliance to add the sense of smell to the multi-sensory viewing experience. This is expected to be of particular interest to manufacturers of games, DVDs and websites. The digitalization and broadcast of scent will enable consumers to send scented mail, smell’n shop, watch scented DVDs, and play scented games.

Under the terms of the alliance, Quest and a second company in the fragrance industry will invest financially in DigiScents, Inc. Quest will provide access to leading edge fragrance technology and scent related products. The deal grants both companies an equity stake in DigiScents, Inc. and the status of preferred fragrance suppliers.

“Quest is determined to secure and extend its competitive position into the future,” says Jean Pierre Houri, group vice pPresident, Quest International, fragrance division. “This alliance illustrates the company’s intent to be at the forefront of the rapid changes in the use of technology and to exploit new market opportunities arising from the experience of fragrance by consumers in new situations. Within this context we are also excited about potentially being able to reach people more easily to interpret the emotional relationship they have with scent. I am convinced that this will lead to the discovery of new sensory directions that will benefit both ourselves and our clients.”

“Immersive media is set to bring smell, the forgotten sense, to the forefront in a burst of reality that will play upon the instinctive relationship we all have with scent,” says Joel Lloyd Bellenson, co-founder and CEO of DigiScents, Inc. “Soon technology will provoke us into reacting to and using scent as we never have before. Quest’s consumer understanding and strength in creative perfumery will help DigiScents, Inc. maintain its leadership of the exploding field of digital scent technology.”

Quest International is one of the world’s leading fragrance, flavor and food ingredients manufacturers, with particular strengths in sensory design and consumer understanding. The company employs 4500 people worldwide. The Fragrance Division of Quest is head quartered in the UK. The division employs 60 perfumers in its creative and regional centers in the UK, Netherlands, France, the USA, Brazil Indonesia and Japan. Quest works with well-known manufacturers of consumer goods as well as prestige fragrance brands.