Henkel, a leading manufacturer of consumer goods and adhesives technologies, will focus on four strategic areas for growth until 2020 and beyond under a plan summarised as ‘Henkel 2020+’.

The priorities for the company are: driving growth, accelerating digitalisation, increasing agility and funding growth, said a statement from Henkel.

Hans Van Bylen, chief executive officer, Henkel, said: “We will build our future on a strong foundation, which will enable us to generate sustainable profitable growth in the coming years.”

“We have an excellent track record of outperforming our markets, a balanced and well-diversified business portfolio with exciting brands, innovative technologies and leading positions in highly attractive markets and categories – and a passionate global team with a strong culture, common purpose and shared values,” he said.

“We share the common purpose to create sustainable value – for our customers and consumers, our employees, our shareholders, as well as for our stakeholders and the communities in which we operate. In addition, our values guide all our actions, decisions and behaviour,” he added.

Over the next four years, Henkel aims to achieve an average organic sales growth between 2 per cent and 4 per cent with an over-proportionate contribution from emerging markets, said a statement.

For adjusted earnings per preferred share, Henkel targets a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7 per cent to 9 per cent. This ambition for EPS growth includes the impact of currency developments and excludes major acquisitions as well as share buy-back. In addition, the company aims for continued improvements of its adjusted EBIT margin and free cash flow expansion, it added.

Van Bylen further explained: “We want to continue our company’s successful development in a highly volatile business environment, characterised by globalisation, accelerating digitalisation, rapidly changing markets, and an increasing relevance of resource scarcity and social responsibility.”

“By 2020 and beyond, our ambition for our company is to generate more profitable growth and to become more customer-focused, more innovative, more agile, and fully digitised in our internal processes and customer-facing activities. In addition, we aim to promote sustainability in all our business activities, reinforcing our leading position,” he said.

“In order to achieve this ambition, we will focus on driving growth, accelerating digitalisation across all our businesses and functions, increasing agility in our organisation and teams, and funding our growth through targeted initiatives,” he stated.

“In addition to organic growth, acquisitions will continue to be an integral part of our strategy in order to further strengthen our portfolio. We will begin to implement our strategic priorities in a highly energised way from day one, to continue our successful development and create sustainable value,” he concluded. – TradeArabia News Service