Germany
www.henkel.com
Sales: $10.9 billion

Key Personnel: Kasper Rorsted, chief executive officer; Carsten Knobel, executive vice president, finance, purchasing and integrated business solutions; Kathrin Menges, executive vice president, human resources and infrastructure services; Hans Van Bylen, executive vice president, beauty care; Bruno Piacenza, executive vice president, laundry and home care.

Major Products: Household—Mir, Persil, Perwoll, Purex, Sil, Spee and Vernel laundry detergents, Pril and Pur dish detergents, Bref and Soft Scrub hard surface cleaners, Somat automatic dish detergent. Personal Care—Schwarzkopf & Henkel, Schwarzkopf, Indola, Clynol, Seah Hairspa, BC Bonacure, Clynol hair care products; Dial, Fa and Right Guard, Tone, La Toja, Neutro mend, Coast, Dry Idea and Mont St. Michel body care products; Aok and Diadermine skin care products; Licor del Polo, Antica Erboristeria, Vademecum, Theramed and Denivit oral care products.

New Products: Household—low temperature laundry detergent formula, Perwoll Aktiv and Sport Refresh technology; Beauty—Igora oxidative hair colorants, Color Ultimate; Bonacure and Gliss Kur Keratin-Primer technology.

Comments: In recent months, Henkel has pulled out its checkbook, snapping up a variety of established brands across two of its three pillars of business: beauty, household and adhesives, the last of which is beyond Happi’s scope. In the space of one week in June, Henkel spent more than $1.6 billion to shore up both its personal care and household care offerings.

Earlier this year, Henkel said it had more than $6 billion to spend on acquisitions. If that number still holds, then more acquisitions may be on the way. On June 2, the company agreed to acquire three hair care brands, SexyHair, Alterna and Kenra from TSG Consumer Partners, San Francisco, for about $370 million.

“This acquisition is part of our strategy to invest in attractive country category positions in mature markets,” said Henkel CEO Kasper Rorsted. “North America is the biggest single market for Henkel and with these companies, we will further strengthen our presence in this region.”

According to Henkel, these businesses will strengthen its US professional hair care portfolio especially in the care and styling categories, and make Henkel one of the leading companies in the world’s single biggest professional hair care market. In the fiscal year 2013, the acquired companies generated sales of about $190 million.

“The high-performance and high-quality brands and organizations are a perfect fit for our beauty care business and will significantly expand our hair professional core category,” explained Hans Van Bylen, executive vice president and responsible for Henkel’s beauty care business.

Just three days later, on June 5, Henkel said it would acquire Spotless Group for nearly $1.3 billion.

“This acquisition is part of Henkel’s global strategy to selectively invest in attractive country category positions in mature markets,” said Rorsted. “By acquiring the Spotless Group, we will strengthen our market position and enter highly profitable growth segments. The transaction will be immediately accretive to earnings.”

The Spotless Group mainly operates in the areas of laundry aids (laundry sheets, stain removers, fabric dyes), insect control and household care in Western Europe. Among the leading brands of the company are Eau Ecarlate, Dylon, Grey and Catch. The company generated sales of about $383 million last year. The Spotless Group holds leading market positions in established European markets such as France, Italy, Spain, Benelux and the UK, and employs about 470 people.

“The leading brands and technologies of the Spotless Group are a perfect fit for our portfolio with regard to business segments and regions and offer potential for future profitable growth,” explained Bruno Piacenza, executive vice president and responsible for Henkel’s laundry and home care business.

Just last month, Rorsted said Henkel is looking for spend more on acquisitions in Mexico and the US.

“If we can get strong assets in the emerging countries, they have the compelling underlying that they will deliver higher long-term growth, but we see very few quality assets in the emerging markets,” Rorsted said.

The moves were announced after Henkel said first quarter 2014 sales fell 2.6% to $5.3 billion. The laundry and home care business unit posted strong organic sales growth of 6.0%, but sales were flat at $1.6 billion. In the beauty care business unit, organic sales rose 3%, but reported sales fell nearly 2% to $1.1 billion. By region, Asia posted double-digit gains, Eastern Europe showed “solid development” but sales in North America fell sharply, due to pricing pressure.

Last year, corporate sales slipped about 1%. Laundry and home care sales rose less than 1% to $6.2 billion. But organic sales increased 5.7% due to double-digit gains in emerging markets such as Turkey, as well as the Africa/Middle East and Asia/Pacific regions. The company’s new distribution center in Dusseldorf has a capacity of 90,000 pallets and will replace four regional warehouses in Germany.

Beauty care sales also fell less than 1%, to $4.8 billion. Organic sales rose 3%, as double-digit gains in Asia were due to “substantial” business expansion in China. The Africa/Middle East region also posted double-digit gains. Last year, sales of Schwarzkopf reached 2 billion euros for the first time.

By the end of 2016, Henkel expects sales to top 20 billion euros, with half of sales coming from emerging markets.