Symrise AG

Symrise, based in the Lower Saxon town of Holzminden, makes the flavours, fragrances and functional ingredients that give food, drinks, cosmetics and even pet food their taste and smell. These are small, invisible components of everyday products, but they are hard to replace once designed into a customer's recipe, which makes revenue sticky and margins high. That resilience shows in the dividend, which Symrise has raised every year for well over a decade without a cut. The yield is modest because the shares trade at a premium befitting a quality grower, so the stock suits investors who want steadily compounding income from a defensive, high-margin business rather than a large upfront payout.