Henkel extends DHL partnership to champion sustainability and digitalisation

Henkel has announced the extension of its partnership with DHL Supply Chain. The decision will see the beauty company move its retail operations to a new "state-of-the-art" facility at Manton Wood in Nottinghamshire.

Henkel, the business behind Schwarzkopf, has made the transition with DHL as part of its growth strategy to create competitive advantage through innovation, sustainability and digitalisation.

DHL will store on average 7,500 pallets and manage the despatch of approximately 140 million units/cases and 6,000 orders a year across 300 SKUs.

The new Manton Wood site features rainwater harvesting, solar panels for heating water and motion detection LED lights. The location of the site and DHL’s shared transport network will also create a reduction in road miles and therefore reduce carbon emissions.

In addition to the building’s environmental features, the site is also operating one of the UK’s first all-electric shunt vehicles, capable of recharging during shift changeovers for continuous operation.

Henkel emphasised that additional automation plans will further enhance its operation, including robot arms for pallet and product movement and AGVs to improve pallet picking safety. These deployments are scheduled for later in 2022 and 2023.

Jim Hartshorne, MD Retail, Consumer and Ireland at DHL Supply Chain, said: “Henkel is a perfect fit for Manton Wood. It’s a progressive company with big ambitions in terms of sustainability and digitalisation, which is precisely what this site has been designed for. This facility really is best in class in terms of environmental features and automation, so we’re pleased to see such a valued customer benefiting from it.”

Tanja Gilb, Director Supply Chain Western Europe at Henkel, said: “We have a long-standing relationship with DHL and we’re delighted that they have the infrastructure and services we need to take our business forward in line with our purposeful growth strategy. The Manton Wood site supports our plans to cut carbon emissions from our supply chain and has the automation technology to ensure we can cost effectively scale.”