As a family-owned, independent fragrance house, CPL Aromas has always placed perfumers, evaluators, and market insight at the centre of decision-making. Technology investment is judged by how effectively it enhances creativity, protects fragrance quality, and strengthens customer collaboration.
CPL Aromas operates at the forefront of innovation in the global fragrance industry. Not only through its products, but through the way the business itself is designed. While the industry continues to evolve, CPL has deliberately shifted from standalone innovation to an enterprise-wide, data-driven model that embeds creativity, intelligence, and automation into every part of the organisation.
This approach has enabled some incredible breakthroughs. These range from AromaHydro (CPL’s water-based fragrances), to AromaSpace (scents straight from nature), to AromaWellness (wellness-focused scent technologies), and has set the platform for CPL’s evolution.
Today, this innovative spirit is being deliberately channelled into a clear ambition: transforming CPL Aromas into an AI‑first organisation where data, intelligence, and automation are designed into the core operating model rather than added later.
CPL’s technology landscape
In 2017, Muthunathan moved to CPL Aromas, relocating from Singapore to the UK to become its CIO. What struck him immediately was that the technology landscape at CPL Aromas was lacking and falling behind many of its peers.
“Coming from a large business that heavily invested in marketing and technology, it was clear that CPL was behind,” says Muthunathan. “There was no conversation about cloud and no automation. Cybersecurity was present, but the bare minimum. There were some core technologies, like an ERP system, but it wasn’t implemented well. Then there was a PLM system and a manufacturing system. So three core systems existed, but they were not really integrated.”
Tailor-making a solution
While that was daunting for Muthunathan at first, he was also eager to get his hands dirty with this challenge. The catalyst for CPL Aromas’s transformation actually came prior to Muthunathan joining; hiring him was the first step. The company’s board had realised that it was behind its peers, and so they hired someone with the modern technology outlook and transformation experience that they needed.
At the time, CPL Aromas had not yet formalised a CIO function. According to Muthunathan, the board recognised that the organisation’s next phase of growth would require dedicated executive leadership focused on transformation – not just technology operations – prompting the creation of the role.
Muthunathan and the business had to approach the transformation in bite-sized chunks. Not everything could be done at once. He and the CPL Aromas team had to break it down into three-year plans. “I introduced this strategy called ‘simplify, transform, advance’,” he explains. “Those are the three keywords I used in my pitch. Simplification created trusted, standardised data foundations. This was a deliberate prerequisite for AI adoption in a highly regulated manufacturing environment. We needed to first simplify our business processes because they were too complicated. Then, we would have the room to transform and innovate. And then, we needed to advance.”
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