What have been the main highlights and priorities at Henkel in 2021-2022?

What shone through since the pandemic is the importance of people. Among our many people initiatives, we have embarked on a journey to strengthen our corporate culture around a new purpose statement, “Pioneers at heart for the good of generations”, to unite our employees worldwide on the company’s legacy of innovation, sustainability and responsibility. We have also implemented the Smart Work program to address what the workplace will look like in the future and provide our employees with the flexibility to balance their personal and professional priorities in ways that work best for them. Notably, with diversity and inclusion at the top of our agenda, Henkel has set the target to reach gender parity across all management levels by 2025. In Singapore, we are making good progress and women already account for 48% of our total managerial staff.

Could you share with our audience Henkel’s latest investments in the region?

For our Beauty Care business, Henkel has signed an agreement to acquire the Asia-Pacific Hair Professional business of Shiseido, a multinational Japanese cosmetic company. This transaction complements our successful Schwarzkopf brand and will significantly strengthen our market position and capabilities in Asia-Pacific, especially in Japan, China and South Korea. It will also expand our Beauty Care Professional business footprint in Singapore.

For our Adhesive Technologies business, we have upgraded our adhesives application engineering laboratory to provide state-of-the-art mechanical reliability and environmental testing services and support customers from product development and design to the manufacturing stage. A robust digital set-up allows us to connect with customers far beyond Singapore so that we are able to run equipment demos, testing, troubleshooting, trainings and webinars entirely remotely.

How do you see the current health of chemical markets in your key sectors of operation?

2021 was a profitable year for most chemical players, and this was thanks to a strong return in demand. At Henkel, our Adhesive Technologies business unit led our growth, while our Beauty Care and Laundry & Home Care business units made a strong comeback once restrictions eased. At the same time, there were multiple headwinds, including unprecedented inflation driven by energy costs and persistently high logistics costs. Despite these challenges, we are pleased that Henkel managed to protect its margins, achieving an EBIT margin of 13.4%, and closed the year with a global turnover of over €20 billion, which represented an organic sales growth of 7.8%.

Henkel is one of the co-founders of Together for Sustainability (TfS) Singapore team. How are you contributing to driving sustainability across your supply chains?

In 2021, Henkel co-founded the Together for Sustainability Singapore team, along with five chemical companies: Arkema, Azelis, Semperit, Solvay and Syngenta. Since then, Evonik and Dow Chemicals have also joined. Together, we aim to partner with peer companies to set industry benchmarks and collaborate with our common strategic suppliers to continuously improve sustainability standards throughout the supply chains in Singapore and the Southeast Asia region. We are also engaging with other stakeholders, such as the Singapore Chemical Industry Council, to identify areas where we can work together to make a difference.

To enable a circular and net-zero carbon future, we look continuously to optimise our energy consumption, waste management, water footprint as well as the biodegradability or recyclability of our products. Already, Henkel stands at 68% renewable electricity usage, with a goal to generate 100% of electricity used from renewable sources by 2030. Additionally, by the end of 2021, 86% of our packaging materials were already recyclable and reusable.