08.06.09
Germany
www.henkel.com
Sales: $10.5 billion
Key Personnel: Kasper Rorsted, chief executive officer; Dr. Lothar Steinebac, executive vice president finance and chief financial officer; Hans Van Bylen, executive vice president, cosmetics/toiletries; Dr. Friedrich Stara, executive vice president, laundry and home care; Christian-André Weinberger, corporate senior vice president and global chief officer and sustainability council representative for the laundry and home care business, Henkel; Tina Müller, corporate senior vice president, responsible for the worldwide hair, face and oral products business, Henkel; Norbert Koll, corporate senior vice president, Schwarzkopf Professional; Brad Casper, president and chief executive officer, Henkel Consumer Goods Inc.; Tracy VanBibber, senior vice president of sales, The Dial Corporation.
Major Products: Laundry and home care brands include Persil, Mir, Perwoll, Purex, Sil, Spee, Vernel, Pril, Somat, Bref, Soft Scrub, Combat pest products. Beauty and personal care brands include Schwarzkopf, Schwarzkopf Professional, Indola Clynol, Schwarzkoopf, Poly Palette, Country Colors, Natural & Easy, Antica Erboresiteria, Schauma, Seborin, Citré Shine, Thicker Fuler Hair, got2b, Poly Swing, Taft, Dep, L.A. Looks, Zero Frizz and Snooth ‘n Shine hair care; Bac, Barnängen, Coast, Dial, Dry Idea, Fa, LaToja, Mont Saint Michel, Neutro Med, Right Guard, Soft & Dri and Tone body care; Aok and Diadermine skin care, Antica Erboristeria, Denivot, Licor del Polo, Theramed and Vademecum oral care; Scorpio fragrances.
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Henkel celebrated the 111th birthday of Schwarzkopf at a special gala in Munich. |
Comments: Henkel’s corporate sales in 2008 rose 8.1% to $20.7 billion. Laundry and home care product sales for the year were $6.1 billion, up 0.6%; cosmetics and toiletries were $4.4 billion, a gain of 1.5% over 2007 results. According to Kasper Rorsted, chief executive officer, business was more difficult in North America and Western Europe than in previous years, while in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia, the company continued to post strong growth in both sales and profits.
Breaking down its global laundry and home care sales by product type, detergents accounted for 52% of 2008 sales, followed by cleaning products (35%), air fresheners (7%) and insecticides (6%).The company said sales rose nominally, despite the negative effects of foreign exchange. Organic growth came in at 3.8%, which Henkel said was primarily price-driven. While it did manage to increase organic sales in all regions, a large proportion of this growth was attributable to Europe/Africa/Middle East zone, according to company officials. Double digital growth rates were also recorded in some countries in Eastern Europe.
Within laundry, the strongest growth came from Henkel’s heavy-duty detergents and fabric softeners. In home care, the main contributors to organic sales growth were dishwashing detergent and bathroom products. Sales of hand-dishwashing products rose in Africa/Middle East with Pril achieving double-digit percentage growth rates in a number of important companies. In bathroom products, growth in Eastern Europe outstripped that of the market as a whole, helping to increase its market share, according to the company.
In cosmetics and toiletries, hair cosmetics and salon products represent 33% of Henkel’s sales in this sector, followed by skin care (30%), body care (26%) and oral care (11%). According to Henkel, organic sales rose 4.7%. In nominal terms, sales ticked up 1.5%, despite the removal of marginal activities in this sector and negative foreign exchange impact, the company said.
In regard to R&D, Henkel’s expenditures in 2008 were approximately $639 million with laundry and home care accounting for 24% of the total and cosmetics and toiletries 15%. In January 2009, Phenion GmbH—a Düsseldorf-based firm that had operated as an independent department within Henkel’s R&D unit of cosmetics/toiletries business—became part of Henkel Group.
Henkel remains committed to being green, regardless of how the global economy is faring. In its 2008 annual report, Albrecht Woeste said: “The positive impact of sustainable development is not economy-dependent. The benefits are there and remain tangible in both good and bad times.” Between 2004 and 2008, the company’s energy consumption (per ton of output) was down 11%, waste was down 30% and water consumption dropped 35%.
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Henkel’s Persil detergent |
“Only if the laundry is clean after the washing process can there be any payoff from an environmentally aware approach,” explained Thomas Tönnesmann, marketing manager for Henkel’s laundry and home care products in Germany.
There were some changes in Henkel’s U.S.-based operations at the close of 2008. For starters, in November, Henkel sold off its stake in Ecolab Inc., an investment it held since 1989. The company received approximately $2 billion for its 67.1 million shares of common stock of the St. Paul, MN-based company, which provides cleaning, sanitizing, food safety and infection control products and services.Also at the end of 2008, Dial Corp. moved into its new North American Consumer Products facility, which houses 800 Henkel employees, including R&D and administrative staff.
In personnel moves, as previously announced, Albrecht Woeste, chairman of the supervisory board and of the shareholders’ committee of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA will retire next month. Effective Sept. 18, Dr. Simone Bagel-Trah will be take over as chair.She’s the great-great-granddaughter of the company founder, Dr. Simone Bagel-Trah.
