Henkel builds new adhesives factory in China

The new adhesives facility will require an investment of EUR 50 million and is scheduled to begin production at the end of 2012. The company plans to hire 600 employees to operate the new facility.

“This investment is in line with our priority to expand our business in the emerging markets,” explained Kasper Rorsted, Henkel’s Chief Executive Officer, during the ground-breaking ceremony, “China has been an important growth engine for Henkel, and we are confident that the plant will greatly enhance Henkel’s growth potential in the country.”

Currently, the company realises 42 % of its total sales within the emerging markets, and 53 % of its employees are now working in those markets.

According to Henkel, the new adhesives factory is also a result of its efforts to further optimise its overall manufacturing activities by concentrating on fewer high-performance factories that will generate more significant cost, productivity, and efficiency advantages. As part of this initiative, the company’s current adhesives production facilities in China will be consolidated into the new factory, significantly expanding capacities for existing and new technologies. These efforts have also been aligned to make operations more environmentally compatible as the new adhesives factory will set a high industry standard for its high operational efficiency, low energy, and water consumption as well as low carbon emissions.