Henkel announces Supplier Awards for outstanding partners

Customer partnership is one of the key success factors for Henkel Adhesive Technologies. The business unit develops tailor-made products for its customers by cooperating closely with raw materials suppliers and integrating their external know-how and experience to strengthen its innovation capabilities. During an award ceremony held in Berlin in mid-September, Henkel Adhesive Technologies recognised strategic partners that delivered superior service with regard to general supplier performance, innovation and sustainability last year.

Mike Olosky, Corporate Senior Vice President Research & Innovation, Henkel Adhesive Technologies, says: "Strategically directed programs and joint R&D projects with strategic suppliers enable us to gain early access to our partners' latest innovations. The close and trustful collaboration with our partners allows us to incorporate our requirements at a very early stage in the development process, and meet the specific needs of our customers in the best possible way." The suppliers' expertise and understanding of Henkel's strategy are an important basis for such a successful cooperation - it ensures their ideas and proposals are aligned with the company's business priorities.

Bertrand Conqu©ret, Henkel Corporate Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Purchasing, explains: "Being in open and direct contact and cooperation with the senior management teams of our strategic suppliers fosters our ambition to set the market benchmark together, leveraging shared innovation expertise, ownership and leadership. Together we strive to deliver excellence in supply performance, innovation and sustainability generating differentiated competitive edge and answers to the Needs of our customers throughout the entire value chain."

Supply Performance Award: BASF

Material quality, quantity and punctual delivery are some of the criteria that are crucial for the evaluation of the Supply Performance award. BASF won this coveted award from Henkel due to its extensive effort to supply punctual and reliable raw materials in the very best quality. For Henkel, BASF is a professional and trustworthy partner that responds to its customers' needs.

Supplier Innovation Award: Kaneka

This year Henkel presented its award for Supplier Innovation to Kaneka, a Japanese company that provides a broad range of polymers for a variety of industrial applications. Kaneka proactively gives Henkel access to its innovations, to open up and explore new paths together. Original ideas about which materials to use and how best to use them are important here, as well as the cost-effective integration of these projects into successful processes.

Sustainability Award: Dow Corning

Dow Corning, a supplier of silicone technologies, received the Sustainability Award from Henkel for its ongoing efforts to optimise processes with regard to sustainability. Strategic partners play a role in driving sustainability along the entire value chain, and making further progress toward the targets set out in the Henkel sustainability strategy. Dow Corning proactively addresses topics such as logistics and waste reduction, and develops new concepts together with Henkel. For high-volume deliveries, it is now possible to replace smaller containers and packages with tank trucks that allow sustainable logistics and easy handling. In addition, a smart recycling concept is being developed to optimise the processing and reuse of product residues.

For further information about the supplier awards please visit www.henkel.com.