Top Brands

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Schwarzkopf

Successful innovations and a consistent geographic expansion make the Henkel top brand Schwarzkopf one of the world’s top hair care brands. Schwarzkopf products are available in more than 60 countries. In 2017, Schwarzkopf achieved sales of more than 2 billion euro including both its brand-name products and salon business.

From a small drugstore to a global brand

120 years ago, the opening of a small drugstore became the foundation for the global brand Schwarzkopf. From that point on, countless innovations followed: 1902 the first powder shampoo; 1955, the first hairspray; and 1972, the first hair care system made up of shampoo, conditioner, and intensive conditioners.

The brand’s success has its foundation in two key elements: a gradual, steady brand development in all hair categories of the retail and salon businesses, and the successful, even geographic expansion in Europe, North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. With consumer brands like Palette and Color Expert in the field of hair coloration as well as Schauma, Gliss Kur, Taft and got2b in the field of hair care and styling, the brand is represented worldwide. Schwarzkopf is the leading hair care brand for coloration and styling in Europe and the most successful hair care brand in the Chinese e-commerce. 

The brand has earned high trust among both hairdressers and consumers, receiving the designation of “Most Trusted Brand” from Readers Digest readers eleven times.

Persil

Persil can look back on more than 110 years of success: from its revolutionary beginnings as the first self-activating detergent, to its great advances in areas of energy use and environmental protection, its significant contributions to sustainable business conduct, and its advancements in dosing and packaging. As a forerunner in the sustainability area, Persil plays an important role in promoting sustainable business. In 2017, Persil achieved sales of about 1,4 billion euro. The brand’s success is based, in part, on its continual product innovation and strong focus on quality.

A detergent makes history

Persil’s history is inseparable from Henkel's success story. At the beginning of the 20th century, doing laundry meant hours – if not days – of physically-demanding labor for women. Fritz Henkel wanted to lighten women’s laundry day burden, and in 1876, founded the company Henkel & Cie, which developed Persil, the world’s first self-activating laundry detergent, in 1907. Strenuous washing as the world knew it, had come to an end, and riding on Persil’s triumph, the family company’s own success story began.

The name Persil is derived from the two most important chemical materials in the product: Perborat and Silicat. Henkel developed an innovative combination washing-and-bleaching agent in powder form. This meant that laundry could be cleaned and sanitized just by boiling it in water with Persil, eliminating the need for chlorine bleach. In 1908, Henkel produced 4,700 metric tons of Persil. By 1915, that amount had already tripled.

Did you know…?

• Persil was the world’s first self-activating laundry detergent.
• In Germany, 4.4 million loads of laundry are washed with Persil daily.
• The brand awareness of Persil lies at nearly 100 percent in Germany.
• Persil is sold in more than 60 countries worldwide. The premium quality product is also sold in some countries under local brand names, for example, “Le Chat” in France or “Dixan” in Italy.
• Since 2015, the famous detergent is also available in the USA. To promote the new premium band “Persil ProClean”, Henkel has run a TV commercial during the most-watched television event in the United States, the Super Bowl®.
• On November 3, 1956, the first-ever spot for the laundry detergent aired on German TV.
• From the very beginning, Persil was an advertising pioneer: On June 6, 1907, the first Persil ad appeared in a Düsseldorf newspaper. In 1908, Henkel unleashed a promotional team dressed in brilliant white and carrying oversized white screens onto the streets of Berlin. From 1922 and into the 1960s, the “Weiße Dame” ‏(woman in white) was featured on billboards and enamel signs to promote the laundry detergent. Another spectacular promotion was the skywriting planes that wrote Persil’s name in white Persil-lettering in the skies of European cities.