At today’s Investor and Analyst Day, Henkel provided an exhaustive insight into the markets, portfolio and growth drivers of its Adhesive Technologies business sector. The world’s leading supplier of adhesives regards itself as being well positioned for profitable organic growth. Thomas Geitner, Executive Vice President Adhesive Technologies, was confident that the business sector was well set to make a major contribution to the achievement of Henkel’s financial targets for 2012.
The world market for adhesives, sealants and surface treatment products and systems is worth around 47 billion euros, and, over the long term, growing faster than global GDP. Henkel is the world’s leading adhesives manufacturer. “Adhesives are ‘hidden champions’, often invisible, but almost always indispensable,” explained Thomas Geitner, Executive Vice President Adhesive Technologies, speaking at the Investor and Analyst Day conference. “The proportion of the total cost of an end product that they account for may be relatively small, but if an adhesive does not perform as it should, the consequences are serious indeed,” he continued.
There are four trends driving growth in the adhesives segment: First: the expansion in adhesives consumption in the emerging economies that already make up 43 percent of the sales realized by Henkel’s Adhesive Technologies business sector; second: the ever-increasing importance of sustainability in the manufacture of industrial products, for example in the automotive or aircraft industries; third: the move away from traditional joining processes such as welding or riveting toward structural adhesive bonding; and fourth: the employment of adhesive solutions for completely new fields of application – such as medicine or lighting engineering.
With its presence in all regions and industries as well as its extensive technological competence, Henkel is ideally placed to benefit from these trends. Henkel generates about half of its sales with adhesive technologies. In the first half of 2010 the Adhesive Technologies business sector achieved sales of around 3.5 billion euros, 16 percent above the prior-year period. Geitner: “We are the first in mind for all customers seeking broad-based application and technological expertise, for whom delivery reliability and consistent single-source quality are important criteria and who want a local partner capable of providing the guaranteed technical support that they need.”
The innovation strength of the business sector that invests 4 million euros a week per year in research and development also contributes to the achievement of profitable growth. In addition to wide-ranging technological competence and an expansive collaboration network involving external research partners and university establishments, Henkel also profits from close R&D alliances with a great many customers.
Thomas Geitner offered a convincing appraisal to the assembled analysts and investors: “We are excellently equipped to generate profitable growth – and we will grow faster than our markets as we zero in on our 2012 targets.”
Henkel AG & Co. KGaA