Henkel achieved organic sales of around 20.1 billion euros in fiscal 2021. This corresponds to an organic sales growth of 7.8 percent versus 2020. A significant recovery in demand in industrial and Hair Salon businesses had a particularly positive effect. In the consumer goods business, demand in many categories returned to more normal patterns compared to the previous year 2020, when demand was particularly strong for hygiene and cleaning products as well as hair colorants while demand for styling products was less strong. At the same time, the impact of significantly increasing raw material and logistics prices as well as currency effects weighed on profitability in fiscal 2021. Thanks to significantly higher sales volumes, successful price increases, active cost management and ongoing structural adjustments, Henkel was able to more than offset the impact on its earnings. Adjusted operating profit increased by 4.2 percent to 2.7 billion euros. The adjusted return on sales was at 13.4 percent on prior-year level and adjusted earnings per preferred share rose to 4.56 euros. This corresponds to a significant improvement of 9.2 percent at constant exchange rates.
“We are consistently driving the implementation of our strategic agenda and have made very good progress in many key areas. In some areas, however, we see the need for further action. Therefore, we are now taking our agenda for Purposeful Growth to the next level: at the end of January, we announced the merge of our business units Laundry & Home Care and Beauty Care into one new business unit ’Henkel Consumer Brands‘. With that we create a multi-category platform with around 10 billion euros sales. This provides a broader basis to optimize our portfolio even more consistently and bring it to a higher growth and margin profile. That is also reflected in our mid- to long-term financial ambition,” said Carsten Knobel. “In addition, our new Venture Fund II with a volume of 150 million euros and our new 2030+ Sustainability Ambition Framework are providing important impetus in the areas of innovation and sustainability. And the new open and dynamic look of our corporate brand reinforces our purpose.” said Henkel CEO Carsten Knobel.
Group sales and earnings performance in fiscal 2021
Henkel Group sales reached 20,066 million euros in fiscal 2021. This corresponds to a nominal growth of 4.2 percent and to a significant organic sales growth of 7.8 percent. The impact of acquisitions and divestments on sales was slightly negative at -0.1 percent. Currency effects had a negative impact of -3.5 percent on sales.
Henkel acquired Shiseido’s Hair Professional business
At the beginning of February 2022, Henkel further strengthened its Professional portfolio with the acquisition of Shiseido’s Hair Professional business in Asia-Pacific. The transaction comprises premium Professional products with sales of more than 100 million euros in fiscal 2021. By expanding its Professional business in Asia-Pacific, Henkel will become one of the leading players in this highly dynamic region with attractive future growth potential.
To strengthen its competitive edge, Henkel focused on further accelerating innovations, boosting sustainability as a differentiating factor, and on increasing value creation for customer and consumers through digitalization.
The new global innovation center in Düsseldorf
In the area of successful innovations, Henkel has made further progress in fiscal 2021. Here, the internal idea factories and incubator teams also contributed that have been established in the past year in the business units Beauty Care and Laundry and Home Care. In Adhesive Technologies, the new global innovation center in Düsseldorf with a total investment of around 130 million euros was opened. Work has already begun in the construction of another state-of-the-art innovation center of Adhesive Technologies in Shanghai. In fiscal 2021, Henkel again successfully introduced many innovations to the market and adequately supported them with investments. In Adhesive Technologies, Henkel for example developed and launched solutions for the automotive industry where sustainable adhesive technologies support thermal dissipation. In addition, innovative adhesives enable the development of sustainable packaging solutions.
In Beauty Care, Henkel has extensively relaunched the hair styling brand Taft as well as the hair colorant brand Igora Royal and successful innovations were launched in the Hair Care segment. Furthermore, the range of the sustainable brand Nature Box has been expanded through further products in solid form and refill packs.
In Laundry & Home Care, detergent caps were strengthened by innovations covering all price segments and are available under various brands, including Perwoll. Henkel has also launched the sustainable Persil Eco Power Bars in some European countries in retail stores. Innovations in the area of cleaning agents include the dishwasher caps “Somat Excellence”.
Henkel has also launched a new Venture Fund II with a volume of 150 million euros to invest in innovative and new business models through participation in start-ups or venture capital funds.