The invisible hero of modern manufacturing, holding everything together
Ciento cincuenta años después de que Fritz Henkel convirtiera una fábrica de zapatos en el origen de un imperio industrial, la empresa alemana celebra su aniversario con veinte mil millones de euros en ingresos anuales y una apuesta estratégica por Barcelona como eje europeo de fabricación aeroespacial. Lo que comenzó como un detergente en polvo se ha transformado en una red invisible que une cohetes, automóviles y teléfonos inteligentes. En un momento en que Europa debate su soberanía industrial, Henkel ofrece un modelo poco común: el de una empresa familiar que elige la permanencia sobre la liquidez, y la innovación sobre la inercia.
- Las presiones geopolíticas y la fragmentación de las cadenas de suministro globales amenazan la estabilidad industrial europea, y Henkel las enfrenta desde una posición deliberadamente arraigada.
- La planta de Montornès del Vallès, uno de solo dos centros en el mundo que fabrican adhesivos aeroespaciales especializados, opera aún al cuarenta por ciento de su capacidad, con una expansión pendiente que definirá su rol continental.
- Más de cien millones de euros invertidos en ocho años han transformado la operación barcelonesa en un hub europeo de planificación, compras y logística, con mil doscientos cincuenta empleados y quinientos millones en beneficio bruto.
- La estructura accionarial familiar —el sesenta por ciento en manos de la quinta generación de los Henkel, blindada por un pacto que impide la venta— protege a la empresa de los fondos activistas, aunque no sin tensión.
- Laboratorios automatizados que trabajan sin descanso y quinientos científicos en Düsseldorf que usan inteligencia artificial marcan el ritmo de una compañía que busca resolver problemas que aún no tienen nombre.
En 1876, Fritz Henkel y dos socios comenzaron a fabricar detergente en una antigua fábrica de zapatos. De aquel arranque modesto nació Persil, una fórmula que sigue vendiéndose hoy, y con el tiempo un grupo industrial que factura veinte mil millones de euros al año, emplea a cuarenta y siete mil personas y opera en todos los continentes. Marcas como Schwarzkopf en cosmética y Loctite o Pritt en adhesivos conviven bajo el mismo paraguas corporativo.
Son precisamente los adhesivos los que Adrián Orbea, presidente de la división española, llama el «héroe invisible» de la compañía. Sellan envases, ensamblan piezas de automóvil y smartphones, y este mismo año contribuyeron al cohete de la misión Artemis. Henkel fabrica estos materiales aeroespaciales especializados en solo dos lugares del mundo: California y Montornès del Vallès, una localidad a las afueras de Barcelona. La planta catalana, inaugurada en 2019, exporta ya a más de sesenta países y funciona al cuarenta por ciento de su capacidad, con planes de alcanzar la producción plena en dos años.
La inversión acumulada en Montornès supera los cien millones de euros en ocho años: almacenes automatizados, líneas de producción más rápidas, infraestructura diseñada para crecer. Barcelona alberga además la sede de la división española y tres hubs especializados en planificación europea, compras para Europa y Oriente Medio, y logística de consumo. En una década, la plantilla española ha crecido un veinte por ciento hasta los mil doscientos cincuenta empleados.
Lo que distingue a Henkel en el panorama corporativo actual es su estructura de propiedad: el sesenta por ciento de las acciones permanece en manos de la quinta generación de la familia fundadora, vinculada por un pacto que impide la venta. Recientemente, la empresa destinó mil millones de euros a recomprar acciones para reforzar ese control. Orbea reconoce las turbulencias —tensiones geopolíticas, disrupciones logísticas— pero sostiene que esa estabilidad accionarial es precisamente lo que permite a Henkel mirar más lejos.
El horizonte que describe apunta a la innovación continua: laboratorios que funcionan las veinticuatro horas y, en Düsseldorf, quinientos científicos que emplean inteligencia artificial para filtrar qué caminos de investigación merecen seguirse. Para una empresa que nació resolviendo cómo lavar la ropa, el reto ahora es anticiparse a problemas que todavía no tienen nombre.
In 1876, a German businessman named Fritz Henkel and two partners set up shop in a converted shoe factory to make detergent. The real breakthrough came with Persil, a powdered formula so effective it's still sold today, 150 years later. What started as a single product line has become a sprawling industrial empire: twenty billion euros in annual revenue, two billion in profit, forty-seven thousand employees scattered across the globe. The company's reach extends far beyond the laundry aisle. There are hair care brands like Schwarzkopf, acquired in 1995. There are adhesives—Loctite, Pritt, Pattex—products so embedded in modern manufacturing that most people never think about them at all.
Those adhesives are, in the words of Adrián Orbea, the president of Henkel's Spanish division, the "invisible hero" of the company. They seal boxes, bond bottles and cans, hold together diapers and car parts and smartphones. They even helped assemble the rocket that carried the Artemis mission back to the Moon this year. The aerospace sector has become one of the pillars of Henkel's European operations, and the company produces these specialized adhesives in only two places on Earth. One is in California. The other is in Montornès del Vallès, a town outside Barcelona, where a facility that opened in 2019 now exports to more than sixty countries. The plant is currently running at forty percent capacity, with plans to reach full production within a couple of years.
The investment tells a story about where Henkel sees its future. Over the past eight years, the company has poured more than one hundred million euros into the Montornès facility—automated warehouses, faster production lines, infrastructure built for scale. Orbea frames this as a statement about European manufacturing at a moment when the continent is losing industrial capacity. "We are in the region for the region," he says, echoing the European Union's push to rebuild domestic production. The Barcelona operation has grown beyond the factory floor. The city now hosts the headquarters for Henkel's Spanish division, along with three specialized hubs. One coordinates planning across all European adhesive factories and will soon add twenty new workers. Another centralizes procurement for materials across Europe and the Middle East, employing twenty-two people. The newest hub, which opened recently, handles supply chain planning for consumer products and employs one hundred twenty people. In a decade, the Spanish workforce has grown twenty percent, now totaling twelve hundred fifty employees and generating five hundred million euros in gross profit.
What makes Henkel unusual in an era of aggressive private equity and activist investors is its ownership structure. Sixty percent of the company's shares remain in the hands of the fifth generation of Fritz Henkel's descendants, bound by a shareholder agreement that prevents them from selling. It's a deliberate choice to keep the company in family hands despite mounting pressure from investment funds. Recently, Henkel spent a billion euros buying back shares to reinforce this position. Orbea acknowledges the headwinds—geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions—but argues the company's structure gives it stability to weather them.
Looking ahead, Orbea is emphatic about what will determine Henkel's next chapter: innovation and sustainability. The company operates automated laboratories that run around the clock, testing solutions to engineering problems. The next step is making all that data available to researchers everywhere. The main research hub is in Düsseldorf, where five hundred scientists use artificial intelligence to evaluate which approaches are viable. "It's fascinating," Orbea says. For a company that started by solving the problem of how to clean clothes, the challenge now is solving problems that don't yet have names—and doing it faster than anyone else.
Citas Notables
These adhesives are the invisible hero of Henkel—they're in practically everything we see, from bottles to rockets.— Adrián Orbea, president of Henkel Ibérica
We are in the region for the region—a statement about European manufacturing commitment at a time when industrial capacity is declining.— Adrián Orbea
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does a detergent company from 1876 matter in aerospace?
Because they didn't stay a detergent company. They built adhesives that can withstand the conditions nothing else can. The Moon mission used their glue. That's not marketing—that's what their chemistry can actually do.
But there are other adhesive makers. What makes Henkel different?
Scale, mostly. They're one of two places on Earth making aerospace-grade adhesives. That's not competition—that's monopoly-adjacent. And they're investing heavily in Barcelona, not pulling out like others have.
Why Barcelona specifically? Why not somewhere cheaper?
Because they're thinking long-term as a family company. They're not chasing the lowest labor cost this quarter. They're building hubs for European planning, for research, for talent. It's a bet that Europe still has a future in manufacturing.
The family ownership—is that a strength or a liability?
Both. It means they won't be broken up by a hedge fund tomorrow. It also means they move slower, think longer. In a crisis, that steadiness matters. In a race, it might not.
What's the real story here—the adhesives, or the fact that they're still family-owned?
It's that they're using family stability to fund the kind of long-term research that public companies can't afford. They're betting on AI and automation while everyone else is cutting costs. That's only possible if you're not answering to quarterly earnings calls.