said2 - I believe in earlier posts you have stated that you reside in Germany and you are also invested in BASF. Henkel is a competitor of BASF in certain chemical businesses, but it also has skin care, haircare and laundry care businesses, which compete with PG, Clorox L’Oreal etc.
I remember Henkel from a deal they made in 2003 to buy Dial corporation. They then sold their 30% stake in Clorox, presumably to avoid the conflict of owning a Dial competitor. Given CLX’s spectacular performance since and Dial’s insignificant and shrinking presence in US supermarket shelves, that was a poor trade.
There is a recent post by Brad Davis in seeking alpha touting Henkel. He is a prolific writer on SA touting various REITs, dividend stocks and his newsletter. He doesn’t usually write about companies like Henkel. So I am not sure what to make of it.
rnam, I am terribly sorry but I do not know anything about Henkel. Although I do own stock I don’t even know a lot about BASF which is just 40km from where I live, apart from it being since decades a German “institution” and (as Bayer) for many Germans a super-reliable source of constantly growing dividend streams, kind of their “pension fund”.
Henkel is usually regarded as the Proctor & Gamble of Germany, maybe of Europe. Unilever is probably their major competitor in Europe.
In the US Purex is their major brand laundry detergent. Found at Wal-Mart indicating a leading share of US market. (Wal-Mart only stocks the leaders of abt 30 labels available.). Persil is Henkels equivalent of Tide, aka best cleaning technology. They are promoting with coupons.
Henkel has owned part of Ecolab, which I would describe as a service company for industrial applications like boiler water treatment but also cleaning supplies and rest room soap dispensers, etc.
I’d consider it more like P&G than BASF, Dow Chemical, or Dupont, etc. Move to cyclicals could be good timing. Solid company. Not a growth stock.
There was a day when the soapers in the US were Proctor & Gamble, Lever Brothers (Unilever in the US), and Colgate. Remember Fab, Dash, and Rinso-Blue.
Today Colgate is still around but mostly does toothpaste. No detergents as far as I know.
And the one not mentioned is Church & Dwight, a domestic company, best known for Arm & Hammer products including laundry detergent, kitty litter, baking soda and much more. They also bought USA Detergents, the maker of bucket detergents often found in discount stores.
Not sure how they rank, but Proctor & Gamble is probably largest and Henkel and Church & Dwight fill out the top three I think.
If you talk about spray cleaners SC Johnson (Johnson’s Wax) and Rickert-Benkaiser make the list.
And the one not mentioned is Church & Dwight, a domestic company, best known for Arm & Hammer products including laundry detergent, kitty litter, baking soda and much more.
I happen to like Arm & Hammer powdered laundry detergent as a user.
I thought it would be funny if the investor, Armand Hammer, would buy stock in Church and Dwight. It turns out that he did own stock in the company, but he had nothing to do with choosing the name of the company.