Germany
www.henkel.com
Sales: $10.0 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: Persil ProClean, X-Tra and Purex PowerShot, Schwarzkopf Keratin Color, Schwarzkopf Ultime Color Coloration.

Comments: Corporate sales rose less than 1% last year. Laundry and home care accounted for 28% of sales and beauty care represented 22%. With currencies in flux, developed markets stagnating and emerging markets slowing, Henkel is focused on the bottom line. After a successful debut in Asia two years ago, the company is rolling out an integrated SAP platform in Europe and has shifted more than 45,000 employees to a new digital platform to improve global collaboration.

By region, emerging markets; i.e., Eastern Europe, Africa/Middle East, Latin America and Asia, excluding Japan, accounted for 44% of sales; followed by Western Europe (35%); North America (18%); and Japan, Australia, New Zealand (2%). Henkel is looking to bolster its US business in a big way. Earlier this year, Henkel took on P&G in the US with the roll out of Persil ProClean via a partnership with Walmart. The move, according to Euromonitor Analyst Ian Bell, could earn Persil as much as $100 million (retail) in sales this year. Persil is already a E1 billion global brand. Even better, Schwarzkopf is a E2 billion brand.

Sales in emerging markets once again made an above-average contribution to growth, led by double-digit gains in the Africa/Middle East region. Sales were very strong in Asia too.

To keep it all growing, Henkel purchased a number of new brands and businesses such as Sexy Hair, Kenra and Alterna hair care brands in North America; the Spotless Group of laundry, home care and insect control products in Western Europe; and the “E” laundry and home care brands in Eastern Europe.

For the first quarter of 2015, corporate sales rose 12.7% to a record €4.43 billion (nearly $4.9 million at press time). Laundry and home care sales rose 13.2% and beauty care sales were up 9.9%. In February, Henkel opened a global experience center in Düsseldorf. At the center, visitors can experience the unit’s innovation via interaction and live demonstrations. During the quarter, the company rolled out X-Tra and Purex PowerShot, a new dosing system that precisely measures liquid detergent for optimal results without overdosing.

In May, Henkel agreed to acquire Colgate-Palmolive’s range of laundry detergents and pre-wash brands in Australia and New Zealand in a €220 million ($242 million) all-cash deal. The brands, which include Cold Power, Dynamo, Fab and Sard, had sales of about €110 million ($121 million).

“This agreement is another step in the execution of our global strategy to selectively invest in attractive country category positions,” said Bruno Piacenza, executive vice president, laundry and home care. “With this transaction we will cover an attractive regional white spot in our core category laundry care with successful brands. The acquired business also provides a platform to further expand our laundry and home care business by leveraging our broad portfolio of leading brands and innovations in these markets.”

Looking ahead, by the end of 2016, Henkel expects corporate sales in emerging markets to reach 10 billion euros, with 12 countries from the emerging markets to rank among Henkel’s top 20 markets by 2016.