Purex Crystals is the latest innovation from Henkel.

Germany

www.henkel.com

Sales: $10 billion

Key Personnel:

Kasper Rorsted, chairman; Dr. Lothar Steinebach, executive vice president, finance, purchasing, IT, legal; Dr. Friedrich Stara, executive vice president, laundry and home care; Hans Van Bylen, executive vice president, cosmetics and toiletries; Bruno Piacenza, executive vice president, laundry and home care.

Major Products:

Laundry and home care brands include Persil, Mir, Perwoll, Purex, Sil, Spee, Vernel, Pril, Somat, Bref, Purex, Zout, Soft Scrub, Renuzit, Combat pest products. Beauty and personal care brands include Schwarzkopf, Schwarzkopf Professional, Indola Clynol, Poly Palette, Country Colors, Natural & Easy, Antica Erboresiteria, Schauma, Seborin, Citré Shine, Thicker Fuller Hair, got2b, Poly Swing, Taft, Dep, L.A. Looks, Zero Frizz and Smooth ’n Shine hair care; Bac, Barnängen, Coast, Dial, Tone, 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.

New Products:

Laundry—Persil Gold Plus Cold Active, Dac Disinfectant, Bref/WC Frisch Kraft-Aktiv; Cosmetics and toiletries: Schwarzkopf Perfect Mousse, Osis, Right Guard Total Defense 5.

Comments:

By category, laundry accounted for 29% of Henkel’s sales, cosmetics and toiletries represented 22% of sales, with the remainder attributed to adhesives.

Laundry and home care sales rose 4.6% to $5.7 billion—not bad, considering the heavy discounting that took place throughout much of 2010. Three brands—Persil, Purex (in North America) and Dixan—accounted for 32% of sales within the division. The top 10 brands accounted for 81% of division sales. The weakest sales were in southern Europe, the US and much of Eastern Europe. But they were offset by strong sales in Germany and a large portion of Africa/Middle East. In fact, AME posted double-digit market growth, but in Latin America, sales were flat as price erosion was offset by volume increases. It was the same in Asia, where a difficult pricing environment in India put a damper on the entire region. Despite the conditions, Henkel executives insisted that branded consumer goods manufacturers were able to gain market share at the expense of private label houses.

Sales of cosmetics and toiletries rose 8.6% to $4.3 billion. Sales in Western Europe and North America remain difficult, especially in hair care, where price promotion and discounting were a way of life. Even the dynamic growth that was so characteristic of Eastern Europe vanished last year, as sales in the region declined. In contrast, sales were up in Africa/Middle East, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
Together, Schwarzkopf, Dial (North America) and Fa represented 71% of cosmetics and toiletries sales last year, and the top 10 brands accounted for 89% of sales. In fact, Schwarzkopf is Henkel’s biggest brand.

For the first quarter of 2011, Henkel’s corporate sales rose 8.9% to just over $5 billion. Laundry and home care sales rose 2.2% to $1.4 billion, while cosmetics and toiletries sales jumped 7.7% to nearly $1.1 billion.