Henkel celebrates 40 years of pioneering in Singapore

“As we commemorate 40 memorable years in Singapore, I would like to sincerely thank our teams, trusted partners and customers for their commitment in shaping our success over the years. Henkel’s purpose “Pioneers at heart for the good of generations” reflects our desire to enrich and improve the communities around us every day with our pioneering spirit, products and technology, and we will continue to deliver value to our stakeholders,” shared Thomas Holenia, President of Henkel Singapore.

Driving 40 years of innovation and growth

Established in 1983, the Singapore team has grown to become a key driver in Henkel’s global operations. With more than 160 employees across its Adhesive Technology and Consumer Brands business units, Henkel Singapore’s two offices include a global supply chain hub. The local hub, alongside the headquarters in Amsterdam, consolidates Henkel’s purchasing, production and logistics processes and creates a strong foundation for Henkel’s operations, merging its supply chains worldwide. The steadfast support from the Singapore Economic Development Board ‏(EDB) has also enabled a continuous exchange on the business sector, leading to invaluable insights on Singapore’s vibrant ecosystem.

As a global centre of excellence, Henkel Singapore implements the best practices in supply chain talent management, sustainability and digitalisation. This includes driving Industry 4.0 processes and smart systems for the plants across Asia, such as the establishment of the Global Adhesive Operations ‏(AO) Digital Team and upgrading of the adhesives application engineering laboratory.

The Global AO Digital Team creates a strong digital backbone for Henkel’s operations through cloud-based solutions, enhancing the interconnectivity of its plants. With improved infrastructure, innovation and intelligence to deliver productivity and efficiency at an accelerating pace, it will drive Henkel’s customer satisfaction, cost-competitiveness and sustainability. Similarly, the adhesives application engineering laboratory was upgraded to provide state-of-the-art mechanical reliability and environmental testing services and support customers from product development and design to the manufacturing stage. With a wide network, proximity to design centres and access to engineering talent, the upgraded laboratory brings Henkel’s training, sales and application engineering capabilities closer to its customers both locally and throughout the region.

Over the past 40 years, Henkel Singapore has been strengthening its business to advance its competitive edge. The recent acquisition of Shiseido Professional, with a focus on the Asian hair business and colouration, complements Henkel’s existing brand, Schwarzkopf Professional, enhancing Henkel’s position in the hair professional business, especially in Asia-Pacific.

With a corporate culture that strongly promotes diversity, equity and inclusion, Henkel is making progress in gender representation with around 56 percent of female employees and a growing proportion of female leaders, as well as employees from 22 nationalities working collaboratively with a common purpose.

Henkel Singapore is dedicated to being an employer of choice and has partnerships with local universities, such as the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, enabling Henkel to attract a large pool of regional and global talent.

Championing sustainability at the core of business growth

As a pioneer in the field of sustainability, Henkel seeks to drive new solutions that develops its business responsibly and successfully along the entire value chain. Since 2018, the Singapore offices have switched to utilising 100 percent solar energy.

Earlier this year, the team planted 40 trees at Wilby Road as part of its 40^th anniversary celebrations, contributing to the OneMillionTrees movement to plant one million more trees across Singapore by 2030.

Henkel is also one of the founding members of the “Together for Sustainability” ‏(TfS) initiative that was launched in 2011, which aims to enhance sustainability within the supply chain. Building on this initiative, Henkel Singapore partnered with five other chemical companies in 2021 to launch the TfS Singapore team, driving greater sustainability across chemical industries in the region.

To engage its employees on sustainability, Henkel implemented a global “Sustainability at Heart” holistic engagement programme in March 2022, to inspire, support and connect employees. In collaboration with IESE Business School, the “Sustainability Pioneer” training is available to Henkel employees in multiple languages, encouraging them to actively champion sustainability in their working and private lives.

Celebrating Pioneers at Heart for the Good of Generations

Henkel Singapore commemorated its 40^th anniversary by hosting a special celebration with its employees, where esteemed guests from EDB, Mandai Wildlife Group, The Food Bank Singapore and Singapore Fashion Runway attended.

“Henkel has not only deepened its roots in Singapore but has also played an active role in strengthening the industry and fostering talent through their digitalisation, innovation and sustainability initiatives. These strategic pillars of Henkel’s purposeful growth strategy are well-aligned with Singapore's long-term vision of promoting sustainable growth and creating exciting opportunities for Singaporeans. EDB looks forward to the continued partnership with Henkel to capture growth opportunities in Asia”, said Fong Pin Fen, Vice President and Head of Consumer Division at the Singapore Economic Development Board, at Henkel’s 40^th Anniversary celebration.

In the leadup to the event, Henkel Singapore employees also participated in the selection of artwork commissioned by local artists 8EyedSpud, which was unveiled on 26 September, in conjunction with Henkel Day.

The celebratory event signified an important milestone for Henkel Singapore, which engaged employees with panel talks on sustainability and innovation and experiential booths featuring the company’s brands, technology, history, culture and milestones.

Henkel Singapore welcomed more than 140 attendees comprising partners and employees and showcased a tribute anniversary video featuring local teams. The event brought to life the 40 years of Henkel Singapore and celebrated the invaluable contributions of employees, while looking forward to a future shaped by its purpose, vision, mission and values.