Carsten Knobel, the chief executive of Henkel, which manufactures detergents such as Persil and Pril in Düsseldorf, has indicated that the company may raise prices because of the Iran conflict. “If our manufacturing costs rise sharply, we have to pass those costs on” Knobel told “Handelsblatt”. “From experience I know that waiting too long to implement price increases does not help. The pressure only grows the later you act”.
Henkel itself is not an energy‑intensive business, Knobel added, so the oil price has a relatively smaller direct impact. “The oil price hits our suppliers and logistics providers very strongly, and they in turn pass part of their increased costs onto us” he said. Among Henkel’s suppliers is BASF, which has already announced a 30 % price hike for chemicals used in detergent production.
About half of Henkel’s €20.5 billion total revenue comes from its consumer goods segment, which includes brands like Persil, Pril and Schwarzkopf. The remaining half comes from the adhesives division, where the company primarily serves industrial customers.