The company’s history began in 1876 with Fritz Henkel, a 28-year-old merchant who was a science enthusiast. On September 26th 1876, he founded the Henkel & Cie company at Aachen with two business partners, and commercialized his first product, a sodium silicate all-purpose detergent, soon to be a best-seller. Later on, this german entrepreneurs family, with its thousands of employees, made Henkel a global company. Nowadays, Henkel is located in 79 countries, has over 50 000 employees all around the world and turns over 22 billion euros a year.
1876 : foundation of the firm Henkel & Cie
1899 : for the first time ever, annual sales exceeded a million German marks
30% : proportion of women holding “top management” positions
85% : proportion of employees working outside of Germany
50% : reduction of carbon emissions per ton of products in 2021, compared with 2010
40 million €: the amount of our charity donations during the last 5 years
Everything started with a dream. 146 years ago, Fritz Henkel, an ambitious entrepreneur and pioneer at heart, revolutionized people’s daily life. He set the start of a story marked with kindness, as well as consideration for its employees, society and environment. Long before this concept existed, Fritz Henkel made sustainability its priority.
Our values guide all of our actions, our decisions and how we should behave. Our diversity is our wealth : different cultures, experiences, markets and industries. That is the reason why our values, that are shared by everyone at Henkel, are so meaningful for our success and our future :
In 1876, Fritz Henkel would have never thought he would go down in history thanks to his Bleich-Soda detergent, which has now become a flagship product on the market. Today, we have two departments gathering leader brands on the market : Consumer Brands (Schwarzkopf, Syoss, Persil, Silan, Vapona) et Adhesives Technologies (Pritt, Rubson, Pattex, Loctite).
Innovation, sustainability and personal development are the key elements of how we view the future. We make a point of creating zero-waste products with a low carbon footprint, as well as offering our colleagues a sound work environment where they can combine both their professional and personal lives.