10.25.21
Update: Henkel ranks at #15 on our latest report Top 20 Global Beauty Companies 2022.
Henkel is #14 on this year's list of Top Global Beauty Companies.
Below is a look at the company's 2021 highlights, recent acquisitions, best-selling brands, and latest innovations.
Corporate Sales
$23.7 billion
Beauty Sales
$4.5 billion
Key Personnel
Carsten Knobel, chief executive officer; Marco Swoboda, executive vice president finance (CFO), purchasing and shared services; Wolfgang König, executive vice president beauty care; Stephen Essick, president, Henkel North America & senior vice president, head of finance, North America; Filippos Minaidis, regional head, consumer beauty care Americas & general manager, Zotos Professional; Stefan Mund, head Henkel beauty care hair professional North America
Major Products/Brands
Dial, Schwarzkopf, SexyHair, Syoss, BC Bonacure, Better Natured, Diadermine, Fa, got2b, Indola, La Toja, Nature Box, Naturelle, Neutromed, Oil Ultime, Pert, Pravana, Seah, Wellphoria, Zotos Professional
New Products
Nature Box Solid Bars, N.A.E. Solid Bars, STMT grooming products, Gliss Kur Colour Perfector line, Gliss Kur Split Hair Miracle line, Diadermine Lift+ Phyto-Retinol, Syoss Compressed Micro Spray
Comments
Henkel’s overall 2020 corporate sales declined 4.3%, and its beauty care sales—which account for 19% of its business—dipped 3.2% to $4.5 billion.
Overall organic sales fell 2.8% in the company’s Beauty Care business unit, strongly impacted by its Hair Salon business due to enforced closures during the height of the pandemic in the first half of the year. Although recovery was on an upswing in the second half of the year, it slowed as infection rates rose and businesses were again forced to shutter toward year-end.
Despite the overall slowdown, the pace of market growth in the markets of importance to the Branded Consumer Goods business remained mostly positive. Growth in the North America region, in particular, was very strong. By contrast, the European market developed negatively, as did the Latin America and Asia-Pacific regions. The relevant markets in the Body Care category recorded very strong growth in the wake of higher sales of hygiene and soap products. The Hair Colorants business in the Hair Cosmetics category posted significant growth. By contrast, the relevant markets for Hair Care, Styling and Skin Care declined.
In September 2020, Henkel strengthened its portfolio by purchasing a 75% stake in Invincible Brands Holding, the parent company of direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands HelloBody, Banana Beauty and Mermaid+Me. Through this transaction, Henkel expanded its D2C go-to-market footprint in Beauty Care and added strong digital capabilities in areas such as performance marketing, analytics and fast innovation.
Also in September, Henkel North America’s Beauty Care Professional business launched STMNT, a range of effective, high-performing grooming goods that are designed for all, regardless of gender or style. The STMNT collection features 14 products ranging from shampoos, conditioners and all-in-one care products to pomades, sprays and powders for both long and short styles.
In November 2020, Henkel’s Beauty Care business started converting its Hair Coloration portfolio to aluminum tubes made of 100% recycled material. With this transition covering all Retail and Professional brands globally, Henkel supported a closed loop while at the same time reducing its environmental footprint. In addition, aluminum tubes are fully recyclable and widely recovered through existing waste management systems.
In December 2020, Henkel appointed Steven Essick as president of the North America region. Essick, who also serves as the regional head of finance, is a 23-year Henkel veteran, who has served in global financial and commercial leadership roles with Henkel across Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America.
During the year, the company increased its investments by around 200 million euros compared to 2019 to strengthen its brands, technologies and innovations, as well as to accelerate its digital transformation. As a result, it was able to further accelerate its innovation processes and bring new products faster to market. This helped Henkel to respond quickly to the demand for hygiene, disinfecting and cleaning products with “fast-track” innovations.
Additionally, to further accelerate innovation and develop new business models, Henkel’s Beauty Care unit established internal incubator teams, combining agile work approaches with the scale and expertise of a global company. The “Fritz Beauty Lab,” inspired by founder Fritz Henkel, aims to identify niches with growth potential for existing brands or white spots to create completely new brands.
In 2020, Henkel successfully continued to integrate sustainability in all its business activities and to drive progress along the entire value chain. New product launches addressed rising consumer expectations toward natural and sustainable products, such as solid bars under the Beauty Care brand Nature Box and others.
Henkel also entered into a virtual power purchasing contract for energy from renewable sources, which will cover the energy demand of all Henkel sites in North America. Furthermore, Henkel was the first company to issue a plastic waste reduction bond with a volume of around 100 million euros to finance measures to reduce plastic across the value chain. The bond underlines Henkel’s commitment to foster a circular economy and reduce plastic waste as well as to Sustainable Finance.
Henkel is also pursuing the goal of tripling the value of its operations, products and services in relation to its environmental footprint between 2010 and 2030. On the way to this long-term goal Henkel had defined medium-term targets for 2020. The company was able to achieve the set targets in most dimensions. Overall, Henkel improved its resource efficiency in 2020 by 64% compared to 2010.
2021 Highlights
According to Henkel’s Q1 2021 filing, overall group sales were down 0.8% due to the impacts of the global Covid-19 crisis that continue to adversely affect the social and economic environment in numerous markets around the world. The company’s Beauty Care unit posted a sales decrease of 1.1% compared to Q1 2020.
Organic sales development in the Consumer business area was positive compared to the prior-year quarter. Despite the ongoing burden of official closures of hair salons in numerous countries, Henkel’s Professional business area posted very strong organic sales growth in the first quarter of 2021.
In February 2021, Dial launched Clean + Gentle, a new line of body washes and antibacterial foaming hand washes. The line includes products that are not only hypoallergenic, but also dermatologist-tested and made without dyes, parabens, phthalates and silicones.
In March, the company published its 30th Sustainability report, detailing its achievements and progress. In 2010, Henkel defined a long-term sustainability strategy until 2030, underpinned by concrete targets and objectives. Over the past decade, Henkel achieved significant progress across all dimensions of its sustainability strategy. Overall, the company was able to reduce its environmental footprint by 39% across three dimensions—CO2 emissions, waste and water— significantly exceeding the target of a 30% reduction for 2020.
More recently, it was announced that Wolfgang König, formerly the category president of Kellogg North America, would join the Henkel management board as executive vice president for the Beauty Care business, effective June 1, 2021. He succeeded Jens-Martin Schwärzler.
Read Next: Colgate Palmolive is #15.
Henkel is #14 on this year's list of Top Global Beauty Companies.
Below is a look at the company's 2021 highlights, recent acquisitions, best-selling brands, and latest innovations.
Corporate Sales
$23.7 billion
Beauty Sales
$4.5 billion
Key Personnel
Carsten Knobel, chief executive officer; Marco Swoboda, executive vice president finance (CFO), purchasing and shared services; Wolfgang König, executive vice president beauty care; Stephen Essick, president, Henkel North America & senior vice president, head of finance, North America; Filippos Minaidis, regional head, consumer beauty care Americas & general manager, Zotos Professional; Stefan Mund, head Henkel beauty care hair professional North America
Major Products/Brands
Dial, Schwarzkopf, SexyHair, Syoss, BC Bonacure, Better Natured, Diadermine, Fa, got2b, Indola, La Toja, Nature Box, Naturelle, Neutromed, Oil Ultime, Pert, Pravana, Seah, Wellphoria, Zotos Professional
New Products
Nature Box Solid Bars, N.A.E. Solid Bars, STMT grooming products, Gliss Kur Colour Perfector line, Gliss Kur Split Hair Miracle line, Diadermine Lift+ Phyto-Retinol, Syoss Compressed Micro Spray
Comments
Henkel’s overall 2020 corporate sales declined 4.3%, and its beauty care sales—which account for 19% of its business—dipped 3.2% to $4.5 billion.
Overall organic sales fell 2.8% in the company’s Beauty Care business unit, strongly impacted by its Hair Salon business due to enforced closures during the height of the pandemic in the first half of the year. Although recovery was on an upswing in the second half of the year, it slowed as infection rates rose and businesses were again forced to shutter toward year-end.
Despite the overall slowdown, the pace of market growth in the markets of importance to the Branded Consumer Goods business remained mostly positive. Growth in the North America region, in particular, was very strong. By contrast, the European market developed negatively, as did the Latin America and Asia-Pacific regions. The relevant markets in the Body Care category recorded very strong growth in the wake of higher sales of hygiene and soap products. The Hair Colorants business in the Hair Cosmetics category posted significant growth. By contrast, the relevant markets for Hair Care, Styling and Skin Care declined.
In September 2020, Henkel strengthened its portfolio by purchasing a 75% stake in Invincible Brands Holding, the parent company of direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands HelloBody, Banana Beauty and Mermaid+Me. Through this transaction, Henkel expanded its D2C go-to-market footprint in Beauty Care and added strong digital capabilities in areas such as performance marketing, analytics and fast innovation.
Also in September, Henkel North America’s Beauty Care Professional business launched STMNT, a range of effective, high-performing grooming goods that are designed for all, regardless of gender or style. The STMNT collection features 14 products ranging from shampoos, conditioners and all-in-one care products to pomades, sprays and powders for both long and short styles.
In November 2020, Henkel’s Beauty Care business started converting its Hair Coloration portfolio to aluminum tubes made of 100% recycled material. With this transition covering all Retail and Professional brands globally, Henkel supported a closed loop while at the same time reducing its environmental footprint. In addition, aluminum tubes are fully recyclable and widely recovered through existing waste management systems.
In December 2020, Henkel appointed Steven Essick as president of the North America region. Essick, who also serves as the regional head of finance, is a 23-year Henkel veteran, who has served in global financial and commercial leadership roles with Henkel across Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America.
During the year, the company increased its investments by around 200 million euros compared to 2019 to strengthen its brands, technologies and innovations, as well as to accelerate its digital transformation. As a result, it was able to further accelerate its innovation processes and bring new products faster to market. This helped Henkel to respond quickly to the demand for hygiene, disinfecting and cleaning products with “fast-track” innovations.
Additionally, to further accelerate innovation and develop new business models, Henkel’s Beauty Care unit established internal incubator teams, combining agile work approaches with the scale and expertise of a global company. The “Fritz Beauty Lab,” inspired by founder Fritz Henkel, aims to identify niches with growth potential for existing brands or white spots to create completely new brands.
In 2020, Henkel successfully continued to integrate sustainability in all its business activities and to drive progress along the entire value chain. New product launches addressed rising consumer expectations toward natural and sustainable products, such as solid bars under the Beauty Care brand Nature Box and others.
Henkel also entered into a virtual power purchasing contract for energy from renewable sources, which will cover the energy demand of all Henkel sites in North America. Furthermore, Henkel was the first company to issue a plastic waste reduction bond with a volume of around 100 million euros to finance measures to reduce plastic across the value chain. The bond underlines Henkel’s commitment to foster a circular economy and reduce plastic waste as well as to Sustainable Finance.
Henkel is also pursuing the goal of tripling the value of its operations, products and services in relation to its environmental footprint between 2010 and 2030. On the way to this long-term goal Henkel had defined medium-term targets for 2020. The company was able to achieve the set targets in most dimensions. Overall, Henkel improved its resource efficiency in 2020 by 64% compared to 2010.
2021 Highlights
According to Henkel’s Q1 2021 filing, overall group sales were down 0.8% due to the impacts of the global Covid-19 crisis that continue to adversely affect the social and economic environment in numerous markets around the world. The company’s Beauty Care unit posted a sales decrease of 1.1% compared to Q1 2020.
Organic sales development in the Consumer business area was positive compared to the prior-year quarter. Despite the ongoing burden of official closures of hair salons in numerous countries, Henkel’s Professional business area posted very strong organic sales growth in the first quarter of 2021.
In February 2021, Dial launched Clean + Gentle, a new line of body washes and antibacterial foaming hand washes. The line includes products that are not only hypoallergenic, but also dermatologist-tested and made without dyes, parabens, phthalates and silicones.
In March, the company published its 30th Sustainability report, detailing its achievements and progress. In 2010, Henkel defined a long-term sustainability strategy until 2030, underpinned by concrete targets and objectives. Over the past decade, Henkel achieved significant progress across all dimensions of its sustainability strategy. Overall, the company was able to reduce its environmental footprint by 39% across three dimensions—CO2 emissions, waste and water— significantly exceeding the target of a 30% reduction for 2020.
More recently, it was announced that Wolfgang König, formerly the category president of Kellogg North America, would join the Henkel management board as executive vice president for the Beauty Care business, effective June 1, 2021. He succeeded Jens-Martin Schwärzler.
Read Next: Colgate Palmolive is #15.