Markets Served: Adhesives, Sealants, Special Purpose coatings

Henkel has expanded it presence in Asia-Pacific significantly this year. Henekl recently opened its first Asia-Pacific Loctite Impregnation Service Center in Suzhou, China. With this new service center, Henkel brings its impregnation technology from Europe into Asian and other emerging markets.

The Suzhou Loctite Impregnation Service Center (LIS) is a modern 1,000 square meter workshop located in the center of Suzhou Industrial Park which is 50 km from Shanghai. This service center, located in the vicinity of major automotive manufacturers and their suppliers, means reduced transportation distances equating to time and cost savings.

Staffed with in-house technical service engineers, LIS offers a world class level of quality and service with maximum flexibility to increase efficiency in customer’s processes. Loctite is a standardized process flow, quality system, fully automated computer controlled impregnation system, and high-tech resins deliver consistent quality and sealing performance. Once parts are returned, customers can expect maximum sealing rates, zero damage, and zero distortion, clean and ready to use parts for the subsequent processing steps, the company stated. The highly efficient design of Loctite impregnation service enables customers to achieve greater levels of sustainability by minimizing wasted resin and shortening the processing time.

Loctite Impregnation solutions reliably seal all forms of porosity in many automotive parts, such as cylinder heads, water pumps and compressors. Since its establishment, Henkel has hosted experts from foundries, automobile manufacturers, and machining industries. Henkel plans to further expand the Loctite Impregnation Service Center in the coming years in order to accommodate an increasing need for quality and innovative technologies from the Asian automotive market.

Henkel also launched a new innovation center in Shanghai to better meet Asia-Pacific market needs. The new facility, featuring a state-of-the-art NVH Testing Lab, consumer adhesives lab and training center, will greatly expand Henkel Adhesive’s R&D capabilities in the region, providing innovative market-driven solutions to local China and APAC customers.

Covering 6,730 square meters and featuring 171 R&D and product development workstations, the HAIC has been designed to facilitate effective collaboration across project teams. HAIC’s NVH Testing Lab, replete with the latest equipment and software, will provide NVH reducing solutions to China and APAC customers through the optimization of product design parameters. Meanwhile, the Consumer Adhesives Lab & Training Center Lab, featuring a number of realistic living-space environments such as a dining room, bathroom, swimming pool and carpark, will be employed to test new product applications and provide effective training for local customers.

Henkel said the HAIC’s Shanghai location was strategically chosen to bring Henkel Adhesives closer to customers and be increasingly responsive to local needs.

Hans Van Bylen Named Henkel’s New CEO

Hans Van Bylen has been appointed Henkel’s new CEO. He succeeds Kasper Rorsted, who has served 11 years on the Henkel Management Board.

“I am glad that Henkel will be led by Hans Van Bylen in the future. Because of his long-standing and international experience at Henkel, his excellent management skills and his passion for brands, innovations and customers, he is the perfect fit for the CEO position. We know that with Hans Van Bylen Henkel’s future is in best hands,” said Dr. Simone Bagel-Trah, Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board and the Shareholders’ Committee.

Hans Van Bylen explained: “My appointment as CEO is both an honor and an obligation. I am looking forward to this and I am convinced we will continue the successful development of Henkel with our global team in the future.”

Hans Van Bylen joined Henkel in 1984. His successful career at the company during the last 31 years comprised management positions with a broad geographical scope in two of Henkel’s business units, Laundry & Home Care and Beauty Care. He began his career in Belgium and Benelux, and he later took on business responsibilities in France, Western Europe, the Middle East and Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Since 2005, Hans Van Bylen has been a member of the Management Board, responsible for the Beauty Care business.

Markets Served: Adhesives, Sealants, Special Purpose coatings

Henkel’s Adhesives Technologies business sector comprises five business units: Adhesives for Consumers, Craftsmen and Building, Transportation and Metal: General Industry; Packaging, Consumer Goods and Construction Adhesives; and Electronics. Adhesives were up 3.7 percent with sales of $10 billion.

“The economic environment for the Adhesive Technologies business unit was characterized by moderate growth in our relevant markets,” said Henkel CEO Kasper Rorsted. “Economic growth was lower than initially forecasted, particularly in the emerging markets but also in the mature markets of North America and Western Europe. Performance in the relevant industrial segments also remained below expectations. Private demand weakened slightly versus the previous year. In these difficult underlying conditions, the Adhesive Technologies business unit exceeded overall growth in the markets of relevance, thus extending  its leading position in the world market.”

Henkel recently held a groundbreaking ceremony with 200 guests to commemorate the construction start of its 20,000 square meters adhesives factory in Kurkumbh, near Pune, India. The new plant will be India’s largest adhesives plant and is expected to start production by early 2017.

The construction of the new adhesives factory is part of Henkel’s global strategy to expand its capacities and grow business in the emerging markets. Currently, Henkel generates 44 percent of its total sales in the emerging markets. With the new site, Henkel will reinforce its position as the leading solution provider for adhesives, sealants and functional coatings.

The multi-technology plant will allow Henkel to work closely with its customers in developing solutions. It will serve various customers in the automotive and metal industry, and in other industrial sectors. In the future, about 500 people will be employed at the plant.

Henkel recently acquired The Bergquist Company, a privately-held and leading global supplier of thermal-management solutions for electronics applications. Bergquist’s products include Sil-Pad thermally conductive interface materials, Gap Pad electrically insulating and non-insulating gap fillers, Hi-Flow phase change grease replacement materials, Bond-Ply thermally conductive adhesive tapes and Thermal Clad insulated metal substrates.

“With this acquisition – which is in line with our global strategy to invest in complementary leading technologies – we are strengthening our position as a global market and technology leader,” said Jan-Dirk Auris, executive vice president Adhesive Technologies. “Bergquist’s track record in developing unique thermal-management solutions fits with our commitment to provide best-in-class customized solutions.”

Bergquist’s strong business presence in the Asia Pacific region will further advance Henkel’s production and R&D capabilities and help deliver greater sustainable solutions to the region, the company stated.

Key Developments 2014

• Bonderite magnesium coating: Henkel has developed a protective electroceramic coating for magnesium that can be used, for example, to coat light metals in mobile devices. This innovative technology offers outstanding protection against corrosion, friction and wear. It also enables product weight savings and efficiency improvements in the manufacturing process.
• New technology platform: An innovative technology toolbox enables synthetic polymers to be replaced by renewable raw materials. This allows a variety of materials such as liquid applied sound deadeners from Teroson to be specifically tailored to each application. These acoustic solutions weigh up to 30 percent less than synthetic dampening products while providing the same or better vehicle performance.
• Loctite TAF: The flexible heat-absorbing films from the Loctite TAF series lower the processor and housing temperatures of mobile devices by more than 3˚C. Therefore they improve design flexibility and device performance while enhancing user comfort.

Markets Served: Adhesives, Sealants, Special Purpose coatings

Henkel’s Adhesives Technologies business sector comprises five business units: Adhesives for Consumers, Craftsmen and Building, Transportation and Metal: General Industry; Packaging, Consumer Goods and Construction Adhesives; and Electronics. Adhesives were up 2.7 percent with sales of $11.174 billion.

“2013 was a very successful year for Henkel. Despite a challenging and highly competitive market environment, we achieved our financial targets and made significant progress in implementing our strategy 2016,” said Henkel CEO Kasper Rorsted. “We achieved profitable growth and increased market share in all our business units. All regions contributed to the solid organic sales growth. As in previous years, emerging markets showed a very strong development. In these countries, however, foreign exchange effects had a stronger impact on reported sales.”

Looking at the fiscal year 2014, Rorsted said: “The economic environment remains challenging and we expect persisting foreign exchange effects, particularly in the first half of the year. Thus, we will continue to further simplify and improve our processes and structures, making us more flexible and more efficient. We are focused on implementing our strategy in order to deliver on our ambitious financial targets for 2016.”

The economic environment for the Adhesive Technologies business unit was characterized by moderate growth in relevant markets, which was in many instances lower than initially forecasted. The effects were felt mainly in the emerging markets outside Europe, and in the markets of Western Europe and North America. Trends in important  industrial markets such as those in the automotive  and electronics industries were subdued. Private consumption remained largely stable. Global market growth was again driven by positive development overall in the emerging markets. The highest rate of growth was seen in Asia (excluding Japan). The markets in Western Europe and the mature  markets of the Asia-Pacific region declined slightly.  The markets of North America showed a moderate increase.

The Adhesive Technologies business unit achieved solid organic sales growth in the reporting period,  and an excellent increase in adjusted return on  sales, thus continuing its profitable growth trend  of the previous years. Organically – i.e. adjusted  for currency exchange and acquisitions/divestments – sales grew by 2.7 percent overall, slightly  more than the market as a whole. This was achieved through increases in both price and volume.

The sales increase was driven mainly by the emerging markets, in which Henkel recorded strong growth. The Latin America region performed particularly well with double-digit growth. Eastern Europe also recorded a strong rise in sales. The Asia-Pacific  region (excluding Japan) showed solid performance.  Revenue development in the Africa/Middle East region was positive.  In the mature markets, organic sales growth was  positive. North America posted a positive performance year on year. Sales were  stable in Western Europe despite the difficult economic environment. However, sales in the mature markets in Asia fell short of the previous year’s level.

Loctite Mobile Concept Car on the move

Henkel Indonesia has pioneered a new mobile training concept with its Loctite Mobile Concept Car (MCC). The MCC, the first of its kind for the adhesive industry in Indonesia, aims to train 900 customers and distributors across Indonesia by the end of 2014.

The MCC is a mobile training room, fully equipped to support technical training, demonstration and testing of Henkel’s adhesive products and technologies under the Loctite brand. The training is designed to train maintenance, parts and technical service engineers on the use of Loctite’s anaerobic and cleaner products in a variety of industries. These industries include heavy equipment, cement, mining, pulp and paper, petrochemical and general manufacturing.

Based on the concept of ‘Bringing Solutions to You,’ the MCC imparts technical knowledge and skills to customers and distributors at their sites, eliminating their need for travel to a central learning facility. It comes furnished with product samples, hands-on material, testing equipment, an LCD TV to run videos and presentation slides, a sound system and air-conditioning. On the MCC, participants attend workshops, such as the Maintenance Reliability Workshop, Surface Engineering Workshop and Loctite Manufacturing Excellence.

Allan Yong, president of Henkel Indonesia, said, “The MCC serves as an important platform for us to deepen our collaboration with our customers and distributors. Following our first MCC in Jakarta, the next step is to deploy more MCCs across Indonesia – in East Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan.”