Henkel Consumer Brands rewards suppliers for outstanding contributions

For the first time, Henkel’s newly established business unit Henkel Consumer Brands recognized its top suppliers for their industry-leading performance in 2022 with an award ceremony. The event took place at the American Cleaning Institute Convention in Orlando, Florida, on January 30 with more than 200 registered participants. The top partners were awarded in three categories: BASF was honored with the “Sustainability Award”. Novozymes, Innospec and Firmenich received each a “Best Innovation Contributor Award”. The winner of the “Supply Resilience Award” was Symrise.

Bertrand Conquéret, President Global Supply Chain and Senior Vice President Purchasing at Henkel, welcomed the representatives of more than 30 major suppliers together with Frank Meyer, Senior Vice President Global R&D Henkel Consumer Brands. They opened the ceremony with a review of 2022 achievements and an overview of the new business approach of Henkel Consumer Brands. Sebastian Schauten, Vice President Global Purchasing Henkel Consumer Brands, introduced the newly designed Sustainovation Partnering Program of the business unit.

BASF, Lubrizol and IFF received the “Sustainability Award 2022”

BASF won the first-place award for sustainability. The company received the prize in recognition of introducing biomass balancing at large scale. “We award BASF for their support in replacing 100.000 tons of fossil materials with renewable biogas,” said Dr. Thorsten Bastigkeit, Global Head of Research & Open Innovation at Henkel Consumer Brands. “This helps us to improve broadly our product CO₂ footprint for a wide range of consumer products and advancing on our sustainability roadmap.”

A runner-up prize in the sustainability category went to Lubrizol for their outstanding support in developing an improved and more sustainable Dial body wash product line. Dr. Rolf Bayersdörfer, Global Head of R&D Open Innovation & New Business at Henkel Consumer Brands, said “This excellent contribution by Lubrizol underlines the strong partnership and helps us to significantly increase the share of renewable material in our body wash product range and at the same time bringing a stronger product performance to life.”

IFF HPC has been awarded as second runner-up in sustainability for a new automatic dishwashing enzyme: “This enzyme provides better stability under challenging application conditions in our Somat range. It delivers best cleaning performance and helps to reach our target of 100 percent biodegradable raw materials in our products by 2030,” said Rolf Bayersdörfer.

Novozymes, Innospec and Firmenich are awarded as “Best Innovation Contributor 2022”

At the award ceremony, Ana Mota, Corporate Vice President Fabric Cleaning at Henkel Consumer Brands awarded Novozymes in the laundry care category as “Best Innovation Contributor 2022” for their outstanding technology support in enabling Henkel to develop Persil with “Deep Clean Boost”: “This unique technology will provide excellent on-top soil removal, hygiene and whiteness which is core to the Persil brand,” explained Ana Mota.

Innospec received their prize in the hair category: “With the help of Innospec, we were able to develop a unique covalent bonding repair technology from scratch, which enables us to launch the next generation of hair care products with unseen performance,” said Agnès Thée, Corporate Vice President Hair Europe & Global Masterbrands at Henkel Consumer Brands. “This innovation will help us driving our leading position in the hair repair category and our commitment to deliver consumer centric solutions.”

Firmenich was awarded for its contribution in the home care sector and was honored for providing a malodor blocking technology that is used in toilet rim blocks. Douglas Rocha, Corporate Vice President Global R&D Laundry & Home Care at Henkel Consumer Brands, explained: “Malodor is a key issue for consumers and odor control a major purchase driver for toilet rimblocks. With this improved scent profile, Firmenich provided a great benefit to the WC Frisch product range.”

Symrise wins “Supply Resilience Award 2022”

Two suppliers were awarded for “Supply Resilience”. Key elements for outstanding supply performance include excellent operational management and best-in-class service combined with continued progress in risk management and sustainability. “Symrise stood out in 2022 with best-in-class support and top performance in operational supply,” said Kemal Kavasoglu, Corporate Director Global Purchasing Raw Materials at Henkel Consumer Brands. Runner-up was Weylchem in recognition of their efforts in securing supply of critical raw materials.

Bertrand Conquéret thanked all suppliers for their continued strong support – even in challenging times: “We are committed to 100 percent responsible sourcing. To live up to our commitment, we count on the resilience and trustful collaboration with our suppliers. As leaders, we aim to pioneer new solutions on climate protection, and our partnerships in sustainability are leading the way for the industry.”