Henkel manufactures adhesives, sealants, functional coatings as well as laundry, cleaning and hair care products
Henkel AG & Co. KGaA
Düsseldorf-HolthausenNew on Amplifa
About Henkel
Henkel AG & Co. KGaA is a listed German company in the consumer goods and adhesives industry headquartered in Düsseldorf-Holthausen. The DAX group is organized in two business units: Adhesive Technologies (adhesives, sealants and functional coatings, including brands such as Loctite, Technomelt, Pritt and Pattex) and Consumer Brands (laundry/detergents and hair care, including Persil, Somat, Fa and Schwarzkopf). In fiscal year 2025, Henkel generated revenue of around €20.5 billion and employs around 47,200–50,000 people from more than 125 nations worldwide. For industrial customers, Henkel offers systems in surface technology and metal pretreatment such as the APNR 2.0 adhesion promoter process for chrome-free pretreatment processes. The company is present in around 75 countries and celebrated its 150th anniversary on 26 September 2026. In 2026, Henkel completed the acquisition of the specialty coatings company Stahl and opened a joint Battery Innovation Center with CALB in Changzhou.
- Site
- Düsseldorf-Holthausen
- Processes
- Adhesives, sealants and functional coatings, Laundry/cleaning agents, Hair care
- Materials
- Adhesives, sealants & functional coatings, Metal pretreatment & surface technology, Specialty coatings for flexible materials, Laundry & cleaning agents, Battery technologies
- Founded
- 1876
- Employees
- ca. 47,200–50,000
- Industries
- Consumer goods, Adhesives industry, Surface technology, Metal pretreatment, Construction and specialty chemicals, Battery technology
- 01
Research & Development
- 02
Raw Material Processing
- 03
Chemical Production
- 04
Filling & Packaging
- 05
Sales & Application Engineering
Products & Processes
Adhesives, sealants & functional coatings
Industrial adhesive and sealing solutions as well as functional coatings for numerous industries.
Metal pretreatment & surface technology
APNR 2.0 (Adhesion Promoter No Rinse) enables bondable metal pretreatment without a rinsing step.
Specialty coatings for flexible materials
Through the Stahl Group acquired in 2026, high-performance coatings for flexible materials.
Laundry & cleaning agents
Consumer products such as Persil, Sil, Ata, Pril and Somat.
Battery technologies
Materials and technologies for next-generation batteries in the joint innovation center with CALB.
Sites
Düsseldorf-Holthausen
DEGroup headquarters and second-largest production site
- Materials
- Adhesives, laundry and cleaning agents
Industries
Additional services
History
- 1876
Founded as Henkel & Cie in Aachen by Fritz Henkel; first product: universal laundry detergent based on waterglass
- 1878
Relocation to Düsseldorf; brand success with Henkel's Bleich-Soda (bleaching soda)
- 1886
First international sales office in Austria
- 1900
Site change to Düsseldorf-Holthausen
- 1903
Schwarzkopf launches Germany's first hair washing powder
- 1907
Launch of Persil, the world's first self-acting laundry detergent
- 1922/1923
Start of the company's own adhesive production
- 1935
Acquisition of Böhme Fettchemie GmbH
- 1945
Düsseldorf plant occupied by US troops; Genthin plant expropriated
- 1949
Schauma shampoo launch by Schwarzkopf
- 1954
Fa soap introduced by Dreiring
- 1969
Pritt, the world's first glue stick
- 1970
Acquisition of Cordes & Co (adhesives)
- 1986
Purchase of the construction chemicals business of Beecham Group (including Ceresit)
- 1995
Acquisition of Schwarzkopf and Dorus
- 1997
Acquisition of the adhesive manufacturer Loctite
- 1999
Spin-off of the chemical products as Cognis
- 2026
150th company anniversary on 26.09.2026; completion of the acquisition of Stahl (01.10.2026); joint Battery Innovation Center with CALB in Changzhou