India an important market, Henkel continues to invest in lab infrastructure & additional capacities, says CEO

India is an important market for Henkel and it would continue to make investments in laboratory infrastructure and additional capacities in the country, company chief executive officer Carsten Knobel has said. Further, Henkel is looking for inorganic growth opportunities through Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), Knobel added.

"India is an important market for B2B. We continue to invest in laboratory infrastructure and additional capacities in electronics,? Knobel told visiting foreign journalists at the Henkel headquarters here.

"We are quite solid in financial and see opportunities in inorganic growth along with organic expansion plans," he added.

While the company continues to focus on its both business segments of adhesive technologies and consumer brands, Henkel sees M&A opportunity in the former, while the latter is in the process of consolidation, the CEO said.

Knobel inaugurated an Inspiration Centre, Dusseldorf (ICD) set up with an investment of Euro 130 million recently.

It would drive innovation and the 'best' solutions to the customers.

"...Customer labs in ICD get us proximate to customers. We are opening a similar centre in Shanghai soon," Knobel added.

About plans for India, Knobel said the company would 'continue' to invest in Indian operations. It currently operates a customer experience centre in Mumbai and two innovation centres in Mumbai and Pune, respectively.

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It also opened a Global Technology Centre in Bengaluru last year. Henkel has about 1,000 employees in India, out of 52,000 globally.

"India is an important market for us...About 80 per cent of our growth will come from India and China going forward," Knobel said.

He further said Henkel lined up a 'strategic agenda for purposeful growth' globally based on four pillars of winning portfolio, competitive edge, future ready operating models, and collaborative cultures.

"Our positive growth agenda is paying off as we are already focusing on our two global categories of business for the last 15 months (post-Covid). We started this year well with a 7 per cent growth in both segments," he added.

In 2022, Henkel earned Euro 22 billion in revenue with equal contributions from adhesive technologies and consumer brands categories.

Within the adhesive technologies segment, the focus is being stepped up on automotive e-mobility, electrification, connectivity, and de-fossilisation of industry, among others.