Since its foundation in 1876, German industrial and consumer goods company Henkel has been one of the most important players in the fields of home care products and adhesives before adding beauty products to their portfolio. Headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany, the multinational company is listed on Germany’s DAX30 stock exchange.

However, the company’s ties to the Middle East, and the Gulf in particular are strong. Not only is Dubai the regional headquarters, the city is also the home of an important innovation centre for research and development of their locally targeted laundry and home care products as well as the ASK Academy for professional hairdresser trainings in Dubai. In addition, it has two plants in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh for the Laundry & Home Care products. Regionally, they now employ more than 1,600 people from 40 nationalities.

The company holds leadings positions with three business units. These are:

Beauty Care

Henkel Beauty Care develops, produces and sells a number of successful high-quality products for the hair, body and skin in more than 150 countries. One of the best known is top brand Schwarzkopf, with their range of professional hair salon products.

Laundry & Home Care

This is the sector on which Fritz Henkel first built his business in the 19th Century. The company’s first product was a laundry detergent based on sodium silicate and was named Universal-Waschmittel – literally “universal detergent”. Since then, this branded consumer goods business has grown into a globally active unit with well-known brands such as Persil, All and Purex.

Adhesive Technologies

Henkel leads the global market adhesives, sealants and functional coatings. The industrial product portfolio is organised into five cluster brands: Loctite, Bonderite, Technomelt, Teroson and Aquence. For consumer and professional markets, they focus on the four global brand platforms Pritt, Loctite, Ceresit and Pattex.

Innovation Centre in Dubai

At the innovation centre, Henkel develops innovative Laundry & Home Care products that are specifically tailored to the requirements of consumers in the Middle East and Africa region.

The decision to open a regional R&D Innovation Centre in Dubai was a recognition of the role Dubai plays for Henkel as an important regional hub, underlining the company’s commitment to the MEA region – one of the fastest in the company’s global portfolio. As a key player, in the laundry and home care business in MEA, the company wanted to strengthen their specific research into these markets.

Dubai’s excellent infrastructure and the good business conditions in the country have attracted international, highly qualified personnel to the state-of-the-art laboratory.  The UAE in general is home to a highly skilled workforce, which is evident from the growing number of international companies, professional service firms and financial institutions operational here. The R&D facility has helped the company gauge the pulse of these consumers - especially considering that people from around 200 nationalities reside in Dubai.

The centre is equipped with a simulated environment for component testing. State-of-the-art technologies and equipment allow applying latest test methods, reinforcing Henkel’s position as an innovation leader.