Biz leaders upbeat on flourishing China market

A1 China has made a lot of progress in opening its economy, offering easier market access and creating a more transparent business environment. These measures are bringing new opportunities for multinationals like Henkel, allowing us to continue to invest in China to accelerate impactful local innovations and strengthen end-to-end capabilities. Looking ahead in 2022, we believe the trend toward high-level opening-up will continue. We also appreciate new initiatives that will deepen the favorable business environment, including strengthening intellectual property protection and building an improved market system that supports growth.

A2 As part of China's transition from high-speed to high-quality development, the economic structure will be further optimized, and the capacity for innovation will be significantly strengthened. Moreover, China's clear steps to promote common prosperity through high-quality growth will increase middle-income groups and raise demand for tailor-made innovative solutions that drive sustainable living.

Henkel is committed to contributing to the country's next stage of development by strengthening local innovation capabilities and anchoring sustainability in everything we do. We invested about 500 million yuan ($79.5 million) to transform our current Zhangjiang site in Shanghai into an inspiration center last year. The facility will be the second largest in our global network.

A3 With a volatile global business environment, Henkel achieved a good overall performance globally in 2021 with 7.8 percent organic growth, supported by all three of our business units. We are proud that China contributed significantly to the group's achievements. Looking ahead, we anticipate China to continue growing in both the industrial and consumer fields.

A4 China is Henkel's third-largest and fastest-growing market. In the past decades, Henkel has established strong local innovation and production capabilities that empower our customers in China to capture new opportunities. Thanks to a strong and expanded local network, we also work closely with our suppliers and partners to ensure supply continuity and to support our customers in their growth journey.

Moving forward, we continue to strengthen our local partnerships to reinforce our business resilience and we work hand-in-hand with our customers to jointly drive innovation and achieve mutual growth.

A5 China is a major market for Henkel and our investment decisions are based on not only business opportunities but also the unique intersection of innovation, technology and talent that we find here. The establishment of our inspiration center in Shanghai, scheduled to open in 2023, demonstrates our commitment to innovating in China for China and the world.