Henkel is planning to merge Laundry & Home Care with Beauty Care to form a new business division called "Consumer Brands". The company said that the new organisation is to be established by early 2023. The new division has total revenues of around 10 billion euros and will unite all Henkel's consumer brands across all categories under one roof. According to a statement by CEO Carsten Knobel, the group hopes the move will be a good foundation for further growth.

There will be a stronger focus on products with potential for growth and profit, Henkel adds. This will involve selling off and discontinuing brands and businesses which no longer belong to the future strategic core areas, as well as making acquisitions in certain categories. Initial changes in the Beauty Care portfolio will already be made during 2022.

More Funding for Investment

According to the group, the merger will result in synergies in administration, sales, marketing and supply chain management. This will allow higher and more targeted investment in strategically important areas within the new Consumer Brands division, which will go towards digitalising research and development, further strengthening online trading expertise and developing recyclable packaging.

The new business division and the accompanying integration process will be led by Wolfgang König, currently Executive Vice President of Beauty Care. Bruno Piacenza, Executive Vice President of Laundry & Home Care, will work closely together with him during the transitional period and remain with Henkel until the end of 2022 at the latest, the company explains.

Positive Revenue Performance in 2021

Preliminary figures show revenues of around 20 billion euros for the 2021 financial year. This corresponds to growth of 7.8 per cent. Beauty Care achieved sales of around 3.7 billion euros and organic growth of 1.4 per cent. Laundry & Home Care increased its turnover to 6.6 billion euros, amounting to organic growth of 3.9 per cent. The Group states that it expects organic growth of between 2 and 4 per cent for 2022.

Source, photo: Henkel