Henkel Launches "Consumer Brands" Business Unit

Henkel plans to consolidate its "Laundry and Home Care" and "Beauty Care" business units under the name Henkel Consumer Brands, with integration preparations to begin immediately to implement the new organizational structure by early 2023 at the latest. With the new business unit, Henkel will bring together consumer brands and business units under a single roof, including iconic brands such as Persil and Schwarzkopf and its Professional Business Unit, creating a multi-category single platform in line with growth targets.

Creating a strong and integrated business unit

Henkel CEO Carsten Knobel expressed his views as follows: "We will create a strong and integrated business unit by consolidating our strengths in our consumer products business units to form the foundation for our future profitable growth. The integrated Consumer Brands Business Unit will provide significant benefits to Henkel, our shareholders, our customers and our teams, and will be in a solid position to shape its own future in a highly dynamic sector." Knobel stated, "We are creating a single multi-category platform with sales capacity of approximately EUR 10 billion. This will provide us with a broader foundation to optimize and shape our portfolio with the goal of achieving higher growth and profit margin profiles. This merger will also create significant synergies and efficiency gains, providing us with more resources for our strategic priorities such as innovation, sustainability and digitalization to be used in our targeted investments. In addition, by becoming an even more attractive employer, we will offer employees more significant roles in the sector and increase growth opportunities. In short, I believe this merger will take our 'Purpose-Driven Growth Agenda' to the next level."

Consolidation under single leadership

The new business unit will be organized in a customer and channel-focused manner. This will be achieved through an integrated approach to all retail, trade or channel partners across all consumer categories. The team, consolidated under a single leadership, will focus on advancing the entire consumer business unit through a leaner structure and faster decision-making process. Henkel will offer employees more significant roles and opportunities in the merged new business unit; it will become an even more attractive employer for teams, leaders, young talents and newly hired employees.

Share buyback program reaching EUR 1 billion volume

Henkel is also implementing a share buyback program with a total volume of up to EUR 1 billion. Henkel will buy back approximately EUR 800 million in preferred shares and approximately EUR 200 million in freely circulating shares. This amount corresponds to approximately 3 percent of the company's share capital based on current stock market prices. The program is expected to begin in February 2022 and commence on the stock exchange with the participation of a bank by 31 March 2023 at the latest.

Henkel announces preliminary figures for 2021

Based on preliminary figures, Henkel delivered overall solid performance in the 2021 financial year. This performance was realized particularly due to double-digit growth observed in the Adhesive Technologies Business Unit. On the other hand, the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic—particularly sharp increases in raw material prices and supply chain disruptions—continued to impact profitability. In the 2021 financial year, Henkel Group's sales increased to EUR 20.066 billion based on preliminary information, with organic sales growth of 7.8 percent. The Adhesive Technologies Business Unit achieved sales of EUR 9.641 billion, with organic sales growth at the double-digit rate of 13.4 percent. In the Beauty Care Business Unit, sales were EUR 3.678 billion, with organic growth of 1.4 percent. In the Laundry and Home Care Business Unit, sales increased to EUR 6.605 billion, while organic growth was realized at 3.9 percent. For Henkel, adjusted sales profit (adjusted EBITDA margin) was observed at 13.4 percent. The Adhesive Technologies Business Unit achieved adjusted sales profit of 16.2 percent, while the Beauty Care Business Unit's adjusted sales profit was 9.5 percent. In the Laundry and Home Care Business Unit, adjusted sales profit was realized at 13.7 percent. Earnings per preferred share (EPS) for the Group increased to EUR 4.56, with the increase realized at a rate of +9.2 percent (at constant exchange rates). All figures are stated based on preliminary information.