The Japanese Group Shiseido offers an attractive portfolio: strong and successful premium brands, with a solid presence in professional hair in Asia-Pacific. This move will see Henkel become one of the leading players in this dynamic and growing market.
Henkel signed an agreement to acquire the Asia-Pacific professional hair care business of Shiseido. The acquisition comprises of leading professional brands such as Sublimic and Primience, licensed under the licensed Shiseido Professional brand. Shiseido Professional is a salon-exclusive brand offering premium products for professional hairdressers in hair care, hair colour and styling items as well as perm solutions. To support business growth through a strong partnership with Henkel, Shiseido will retain a 20% share in the legal entity in Japan.
In 2020, the business saw a turnover of almost €100 Million euros and employed more than 500 people. Shiseido ‘s brands are present in most countries in the Asia-Pacific region, an area known as a strong hub for beauty innovations and trends. In terms of sales share, Japan, China and South Korea are the most important markets.
Henkel CEO Carsten Knobel said: “As part of our strategic agenda for purposeful growth, compelling acquisitions play a key role in actively shaping our portfolio. This transaction is a step-change for Henkel’s Hair Professional business. By expanding our Professional business in Asia-Pacific, we will become one of the leading players in this highly dynamic region with attractive future growth potential. This move will also further strengthen our Hair Professional business which has already shown very strong development in the past years and will be an integral part of our future Consumer Brands business unit.”
Wolfgang König, Executive Vice President of Beauty Care at Henkel said. “We are excited about the opportunity to add these strong and successful premium brands to our Professional portfolio. This business is a perfect strategic fit to our existing portfolio, adding highly complementary brands and hair categories whilst significantly expanding our position in the attractive Asia-Pacific market.
We will significantly increase our market position in Japan and China, the world’s top 2 and 3 Hair Professional markets and important centres of trends and innovations”
In recent years Henkel has been strengthening its Hair Professional business: in 2014, Henkel acquired the three US companies Sexy Hair, Alterna and Kenra; in 2017, Henkel successfully closed the acquisition of Nattura Laboratorios and the North American Hair Professional business of Shiseido.
The Professional Hair Care business of Henkel holds leading market positions in various international market segments and offers a broad portfolio of hair care, hair styling and colouration brands exclusively for hairdressers, such as Schwarzkopf Professional, Bonacure, Igora Royal and Authentic Beauty Concept.
