For the 14^th time, Henkel recognized its top suppliers for their industry-leading performance in 2020. The event took place on January 25 – for the first time fully virtually – with more than 300 registered participants. The partners were awarded in five categories. Evonik was honored with the “Sustainability Award” by Henkel Beauty Care. Stepan received the “Sustainability Award” by Laundry & Home Care. Innospec was awarded as “Best Innovation Contributor” by Beauty Care while Laundry & Home Care honored Novozymes in this category. The winner of the “Best Supply Performance” was BASF.

Bertrand Conquéret, President Global Supply Chain and Senior Vice President Purchasing at Henkel welcomed the representatives of more than 30 major suppliers and opened the ceremony with a review of the year 2020 as well as an update on Henkel’s strategy of creating purposeful growth.

Evonik and Stepan received “Sustainability Award 2020” as first place winners 
Evonik won the award for sustainability from Henkel’s business unit Beauty Care. The company received the prize in recognition of the first biosurfactant entering products with convincing performances in foam, mildness, and cosmetic esthetics. “We thank Evonik for their long-term dedication in building high performance industrial-scale biosurfactants,” said Frank Meyer, Corporate Vice President R&D Beauty Care. “This helps us implementing our sustainability and performance roadmap.”

Dr. Arndt Scheidgen, Global Head of Regulatory R&D Laundry & Home Care, awarded Stepan for a new vegan softening active: “This material is used in our new Vernel Naturals range. It is made from renewable European plant oils and therefore supports our sustainability target to reduce our ecological footprint.”

The second prize in Beauty Care’s sustainability category went to Dow for their collaboration on fully biodegradable products. AMA Herbal Laboratories received an award for its support in launching a new range of 100% Vegetal color products.

Two suppliers won the second prize in Laundry & Home Care for their natural based raw materials: BASF for their support to the Love Nature range in Europe, and Solvay for their bio-based surfactant in all Free Clear Pure in North America.

Innospec is the “Best Innovation Contributor Beauty Care 2020” 
At the award ceremony, Rik Strubel, Chief Marketing Officer Henkel Beauty Care, talked about the recent trend of solid beauty products in hair and body care. He awarded Innospec as the Best Innovation Contributor Beauty Care 2020 because of the company’s outstanding and creative support in enabling Henkel to launch a shampoo powder formula in record time. The winners of the second prize were Evonik for a COSMOS certified material used in the relaunch of Nature Box, and CFF for providing cellulose fibers for a fiber spray with excellent texturizing performance.

Novozymes is the “Best Innovation Contributor Laundry & Home Care 2020”
“With a new-to-the world enzyme technology, we are relaunching our complete range of leading premium detergents globally, including Persil Discs. Novozymes and Henkel collaborated on this new technology for six years,” said Ana Mota, Corporate Vice President Marketing Leading Premium Brands Laundry & Home Care. BASF was honored as runner-up for developing a new high-performance ingredient that enables new, more compact monodosed formulations with high performance. Solvay also received a second prize for its 24-hour hygiene technology, that provides unique benefits for Henkel’s Bref surface cleaner.

BASF wins the “Best Supply Performance 2020” award 
Key elements for outstanding supply performance include excellent operational management and best-in-class service combined with continued progress in risk management and sustainability. “BASF excelled in 2020 with top performance in operational supply as well as great support during multiple force majeure situations,” said Kemal Kavasoglu, Corporate Director Global Purchasing Laundry & Home Care. Runners-up were Evonik with their agile support in risk management during critical market situation and supply of bottlenecks in EU & IMEA, and Innospec in recognition of their efforts in securing supply of critical materials for toilet rim blocks during plant changeover situation.

Three Henkel Management Board members spoke at the event: Bruno Piacenza, responsible for Laundry & Home Care, shared his perspective of sustainability, Jens-Martin Schwärzler, responsible for Beauty Care, spoke about innovation, and CFO Marco Swoboda talked about sourcing and digitalization. 

Bertrand Conquéret thanked all suppliers for their tremendous commitment and support in extraordinary times. He shared Henkel’s new 100% responsible sourcing agenda and encouraged the partners to help develop and grow Henkel’s leadership in sustainability ambitions: “Sustainability is at the core of our purposeful growth agenda. It is a leadership call and requires the commitment of all of us to take the responsibility and to deliver real progress in 2021. Leadership in sustainability – this is our joint agenda.”