Henkel: Home office to save gas

Dhe employees of the consumer goods group Henkel could switch back to their home office in the fall. Henkel boss Carsten Knobel told the “Rheinische Post” that the Düsseldorf group could thus make a contribution to saving gas, which had become scarce after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent economic sanctions. “It is possible that we will reintroduce more home offices for a limited period, just like in the pandemic,” Knobel told the newspaper: “But this time to save energy in the national interest.”

Henkel could then reduce the temperatures in the offices sharply, while the employees at home could heat normally. However, this should not be a permanent solution. Overall, it is important “that we save as much gas as possible by the winter so that the storage tanks are sufficiently full,” emphasized Knobel. Henkel also does not want to convert a power plant on the factory premises entirely to gas, as originally planned.

The manufacturer of Pritt and Persil is currently undergoing renovations. Knobel wants to merge the ailing cosmetics business with the detergent business. He hopes for growth from this, but also wants to cut costs. Henkel wants to achieve savings of around 500 million euros, and around 2,000 jobs are to be cut worldwide by the end of 2023. “There will be around 300 jobs in Germany, i.e. around 15 percent,” said Knobel of the “Rheinische Post”: “That roughly corresponds to the proportion of the German workforce in the global number of employees in the two divisions that we are merging.”