For 150 years, Henkel has been part of the fabric of domestic life, from laundry and home care to hair, adhesives and beyond. In the UK and Ireland, its portfolio spans products that carry both familiarity and momentum, including Schwarzkopf, got2b, LIVE, Dylon, Bloo, and Colour Catcher.
For Stefan Pichler, general manager for Henkel Consumer Brands UK and Ireland, that mix of trust and transformation is what makes the role compelling.
Pichler took on his current position in March 2025, but his Henkel story stretches back almost two decades. He joined the business as a trainee in Austria in 2006 and was immediately handed responsibility for a small local disinfection brand.
It was modest in scale, but formative in impact. “From day one, I had the feeling that it was mine,” he says. “I had the responsibility. I needed to take care of it. You cannot imagine the pride I had.”
That early ownership has stayed with him. Today, he leads a UK and Ireland consumer brands team of around 80 people, overseeing a broad portfolio across categories that millions of households rely on every week. The scale has changed dramatically, but the principle remains the same. Give people responsibility early, build a culture where they can challenge, and take pride in the work. Then trust them to make decisions.
It’s a leadership model rooted in one of Henkel’s defining characteristics. This is a global company, but it’s still shaped by a long-term, family-influenced mindset. It’s publicly listed, yet majority family owned.
“It shows that we are working with a very long-term ambition,” he says. “There is financial ambition, of course, but also a deep moral responsibility.”
Henkel’s heritage, built on invention
Henkel’s origin story is one of applied chemistry meeting everyday need. The company was founded in 1876 by Fritz Henkel, a 28-year-old merchant with an interest in science. Its earliest breakthrough came in laundry, with Persil launching in 1907 as the world’s first self-acting detergent.
It was a product that changed the rhythm of domestic labour. At a time when washing clothes meant hours of physical effort, detergent innovation made the process faster and easier.
Pichler still sees that moment as a useful lens for understanding the business today. “The whole company was created around discovering the first self-acting detergent,” he says. “People spent hours scrubbing their laundry. Then this product saved hours of their time.”
The story didn’t stop at laundry. When Henkel later faced a shortage of adhesives to close its detergent packaging, it began making its own glue. What began as a practical solution eventually became one of the world’s leading adhesives businesses.
That’s the thread Pichler keeps returning to; Henkel’s heritage is a long journey of solving practical problems. “We see our heritage clearly as a strength in R&D,” he says. “It can never be a blocker. It will always be an enabler.”
In many consumer sectors, heritage can become a constraint. Brands can become so protective of the past that they lose the ability to respond to the present. Pichler argues Henkel’s history does the opposite. The company has survived precisely because it keeps reinventing itself.
The launch of Dylon detergent in the UK and Ireland is one recent example. Historically known for fabric dye, Dylon has moved into a detergent proposition built around renewing clothes, helping colours, fibres and freshness last longer. Pichler points to the ingredient technology behind it, including Dispersin, as evidence of how research can unlock a new category role.
“Only Henkel has it because our R&D discovered it,” he says. “Thanks to that and a unique mix of our ingredients, we can claim that Dylon Detergents renews your clothes.”
Where the consumer goes, Henkel follows
If heritage provides the grounding, the modern retail landscape provides the pressure.
Pichler has watched the industry transform since joining Henkel in 2006. Back then, brand building still leaned heavily on out-of-home, newspapers and radio. Meetings meant flying to headquarters. Ecommerce was far smaller and retail media, as it is understood today, barely existed.
Now, he says, the job is about highly targeted, full-funnel activity, from Amazon Prime to retail media, social commerce and the physical shelf.
The UK sits at the centre of that shift.
“The UK is a dreamland when it comes to tracking the customer journey,” he says. “In no other country in Europe can you track as much as you can already track here.”
That capability is fundamental because consumer behaviour has become increasingly hybrid. People research online and buy offline and use Amazon like a search engine, then purchase in Tesco, Boots, Superdrug or another retailer the next day. They may discover a product through social content, compare it on a retailer website, then complete the transaction in store.
For Henkel, that means being a constant presence in consumers’ lives.
“We need to be everywhere where our consumer is, or potentially is,” Pichler says. “It’s so interlinked. We need to be absolutely present everywhere.”
That doesn’t mean treating ecommerce as a separate world. In fact, Pichler says one of the biggest changes has been the end of the old ecommerce specialist silo. Commercial teams now need to understand Amazon and Morrisons, TikTok Shop and Tesco, performance data and physical ranging.
Social commerce is another complex emerging layer to consider. For brands such as got2b and LIVE, platforms like TikTok are cultural spaces where authenticity matters more than polish.
“You cannot go there with a polished corporate TV commercial and put it on TikTok,” Pichler says. “It’s about creating something authentic that the community is genuinely interested in.”
Got2b offers the clearest example. The brand’s energy is young, expressive and playful, making it naturally suited to a world of user-generated content and fast-moving trends. Pichler mentions the moment Billie Eilish was seen using a got2b product, without the brand orchestrating it.
“That is our intention,” he says. “To create products that are desirable for people out there.”
Not every brand in the Henkel portfolio will behave the same way, and nor should it. Schwarzkopf Creme Supreme, with its focus on caring colouration and hair protection, speaks to a different consumer need than the loud, expressive world of LIVE and got2b. Bloo has a different role again, built around reassurance and household trust.
The skill lies in understanding each brand’s equity, then innovating in a way that strengthens it.
A compact team with big responsibility
Pichler’s day-to-day role cuts across marketing, sales, category management, media and supply chain. He might be discussing the right retail media mix for a new laundry variant one moment, then working with his leadership team on people development the next.
He sees the job in two broad parts. The first is commercial decision-making. The second is leadership. That second part isn’t a soft add-on. For Pichler, culture is a commercial asset.
“If you have a healthy culture with an engaged team, you cannot not succeed,” he says.
That culture starts with trust, he says. People need to feel able to say they do not know, to admit when something has gone wrong, and to ask for help. From there, teams need what Pichler calls ‘healthy conflict’. Open, passionate debate that still respects the people in the room.
“You need to have healthy conflict and passionate debates,” he says. “Only through these debates do you discover new ideas.”
In a business where an 80-person local team is responsible for decisions touching many of the UK’s most recognisable consumer brands, that’s a vital point. The responsibility on individuals is significant. Pichler sees his role as making sure the right people are in the right positions.
“I have seen people who were not doing well in one job thriving in another,” he says. “The job of any strong leader is to detect the strengths and skill set of a person, then place them accordingly.”
Building category value with retailers
Ask Pichler what makes the UK retail market distinctive and his answer is immediate; it’s the quality of collaboration.
He describes the UK as more consumer-centric and more focused on category growth than many other European markets. Negotiation is still tough. Commercials still matter. But once those discussions are settled, he says, the conversation moves quickly towards mutual growth.
“Here, as it should be, it’s about creating a common category vision and going for a win-win,” he says. “How can you grow a category so that the retailer, supplier and consumer benefit from it?”
That expectation shapes how Henkel approaches retailer partnerships. The business does not go to retailers simply asking them to back a brand. It tries to show how an innovation can bring incrementality to a category.
Dylon detergent is again a useful case study. The product marked Henkel’s first entry into the UK detergent market and, according to Pichler, secured support because it brought something genuinely different. Established brands have traditionally talked about stain removal, whiteness and cleaning performance. Dylon adds a renewal proposition.
“They are not interested if we grow only our brand,” Pichler says. “We need to support a retailer to grow the entire category.”
Retail media is increasingly part of that growth conversation. Pichler sees it as one of the major shifts shaping the UK market, but also as a channel still finding its natural place. “In a few years from now, retail media will just be another media channel,” he says.
For now, the focus is on testing, learning and optimising. Retail media’s strength is speed. Brands can see quickly what is working and shift investment accordingly. Placement, promotion, media mix, price and shelf impact all become part of a shared performance conversation.
The UK market’s pragmatism is one of the reasons Pichler enjoys operating here.
“If the retailer believes in the brand and the concept, they give you a chance,” he says. “But then it needs to prove itself very quickly. If it performs, it will expand. If it does not, you will have a less good placement very soon. That is absolutely fair.”
Sustainability without the shouting
Henkel’s sustainability story isn’t new, even if consumer expectations around sustainability have intensified.
Pichler says the company was publishing sustainability reports in the early 1990s, long before most businesses were expected to do so. Today, sustainability is measured through concrete targets across climate, packaging, communities, gender equity, pay equity and supply chains.
His clearest message is that sustainability must be measurable. “Everything is nailed down and validated by outside institutions,” he says.
He points to Henkel’s net zero target for 2045, validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, as part of that discipline. He also notes the company’s rule that any new product replacing an existing one must be more sustainable than what came before, whether through plastic, energy, recycled content or broader footprint.
There’s a cost to that commitment. Recycled plastic and renewable energy are in high demand, making sustainability more expensive. Yet Pichler is clear that this isn’t a debate the company is prepared to reopen. “There is no negotiation,” he says.
What’s interesting is how quietly Henkel often chooses to talk about it. Pichler believes the company could market its sustainability work more confidently, but says humility is deeply embedded in the culture.
“It’s just not in our DNA,” he says. “We’re sustainable because it matters, and we see it as a priority. We walk the talk.”
That restraint isn’t the same as lack of ambition. In fact, Pichler argues that large mass-market brands have a particular responsibility because small improvements at scale can have a huge environmental impact.
“If we reduce the CO2 footprint on a mass product by 10 per cent, it has a greater impact on the environment than progress from a niche green start-up,” he says.
He also highlights one of the lesser-understood realities of laundry sustainability. A significant share of a detergent product’s carbon footprint comes not from production or packaging, but from consumer use in the home.
That means Henkel’s role extends beyond formula and packaging. It also includes helping consumers wash at lower temperatures, choose shorter cycles where appropriate and understand how to get strong results with less energy.
“What we cannot control is how people use it,” Pichler says. “That is where we need to educate, and we do as much as possible.”
The next reinvention
Looking ahead, Pichler sees a UK retail market becoming more targeted, more hybrid and less predictable.
He believes retail media will become normalised as part of the wider media mix. Ecommerce penetration will continue to rise. Consumers will become harder to categorise, with the same shopper trading down in one category and buying ultra-premium in another. Individual solutions will become more important, particularly in beauty and personal care.
Younger shoppers continue to add further complexity. Trends can now appear, scale and disappear within months, especially in beauty, where indie brands can move quickly and capture attention through TikTok.
For a business like Henkel, built on long-term innovation cycles, the challenge is not to abandon its strengths but to add a new muscle. “We usually innovate years ahead,” Pichler says. “Now we need to add a start-up mentality in certain areas, especially when it comes to beauty. We need to get faster.”
That neatly captures the wider Henkel story. The company is not trying to swap heritage for speed, or trust for trend. It’s trying to hold both at once, and do it whilst maintaining all of that hard-honed consumer trust.
Its pitch to retailers is built around that balance. Henkel has the scale, scientific capability and category expertise of a 150-year business, but it also recognises that future growth will depend on speed, relevance, co-creation and consumer understanding.
Pichler’s message to retailers is straightforward. Bring Henkel in early. Share the consumer challenge. Build the innovation together.
“Co-creation is a very powerful tool,” he says. “Bring us in early enough and let’s create it together, because then we automatically bring innovations that retailers want.”
That may be the clearest expression of what Henkel wants to be in the UK and Ireland today. Not simply a supplier of trusted household names, but a category partner with enough history to understand what lasts and enough ambition to shape what comes next. As Pichler puts it, the company has 150 years behind it and is preparing for another 150 ahead.
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