Henkel’s all-new Innovation Centre in Pune to develop and validate products for India, Middle East and Africa

Pune, October 23, 2013: Henkel Adhesive Technologies India, a subsidiary of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Germany, has inaugurated its innovation centre in Pune, a first in the country.

Without disclosing the investment made in setting up this innovation centre, company officials claim that the centre marks the most important investment in the region through which the company will now develop and validate the products for customers in India, Middle East and Africa. Besides Pune, the company has 10 other innovation centres around the world.

Christian N Kirsten, corporate vice-president, adhesive technologies, transportation & metal, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, said: “We will have 35 scientists working at our Innovation Centre in Pune to begin with and we plan to expand the team over time. India is a very strategic market for us and we are the only adhesive technology provider which has an innovation centre in this country.”

Spread across 27,000 square feet, the centre is equipped with customer component testing facilities, dispensing systems, application training and a host of other engineering equipment which will enable the company to reduce product development time substantially for the local market. The innovation centre also houses a laboratory which is equipped with a simulated environment for automotive acoustic structures.

According to company officials, India ranks in the top 15 markets for Henkel globally with North America, China and Germany being the top three markets in that order. Jeremy Hunter, president, Henkel India, said, “The new innovation centre will help us in consolidating our presence in India. By 2016, Henkel aims to grow its sales to 20 billion euros of which 50 percent would flow in from our businesses in emerging markets including India.”

Though the officials did not disclose their turnover from India, they revealed that the company globally has a turnover of nearly 8 billion euros (Rs 66,624 crore), of which 20 percent comes from the automotive operations. Jan-Dirk Auris, executive vice president, adhesive technologies, Henkel AG & Co. KGaA added that “we invest over 400 million euros on our R&D every year. Our focus on emerging markets could be estimated from the fact that we have 47,000 employees working for us around the world, of which nearly 60 percent are working in the emerging markets, while less than 10 percent of our overall workforce works in Germany. We had opened our innovation centre in China almost four years back.”

Henkel produces products in multiple areas of adhesives (engineering and assembly applications), surface treatment solutions (applications in body and paint shops in automakers’ factories), lubricant solutions (for cutting metal based components – engine/transmission production), sealings, coatings and acoustics based products for applications in vehicles.

AMIT PANDAY

Photograph (L-R): Christian Kirsten, corporate VP, Adhesive Technologies, Transport & Metal, Kathrin Menges, EVP - Human Resources and Infrastructure Services, and Jan-Dirk Auris, EVP, Adhesive Technologies, Henkel Adhesives Technologies, inaugurating the Henkel India Innovation Center in Pune.