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Henkel UK & Ireland prioritises donations to local communities in support of Covid-19

Throughout these challenging times, Henkel in the UK and Ireland has been supporting organisations working to fight Covid-19 and help vulnerable people.

Commitment Sustainability 9 Sep 2020

Many charities around the UK & Ireland have struggled to raise money during the pandemic, with their usual fundraising events cancelled and limited opportunities to communicate the amazing work they do. Not only do they face heavy uncertainty and disruption, but they also risk reducing their services to vulnerable families who rely on them.

The Laundry and Home Care team at Henkel UK & Ireland has been working hard to meet the increased demand for its brands during the pandemic, particularly for products with strong hygiene credentials. With consumers in general spending more time at home and dedicating more time to hygiene and cleanliness, the whole team has excelled in order to meet customer needs.
Senior leaders in the team decided to give back a part of these great results in the form of donations to two small local charities whose work makes a big impact, especially during this uncertain time.

The Pepper Foundation and The Hertfordshire Community Nurses Trust, have received £10,000 pounds each, bringing in a total of £40,000 donated to charities by the Laundry and Home Care team this year. 

These generous financial donations follow a previous donation of 29,000 individual products of Bloo, Jeyes and Parozone to a charity called In Kind Donations, which collates large donations from organisations and distributes them to smaller charities throughout the UK. Donations were also made to Hope Nottingham; Watford and Rickmansworth Foodbank; Peter McVerry Trust in Dublin and City in the Community Foundation.

This latest donation from Henkel UK is part of a wider effort by the company during the pandemic. In March, Henkel announced the creation of a Global Solidarity Programme to support employees, customers and communities facing the global Covid-19 pandemic. The programme includes:

  • A fund of €2m, half to the WHO/UN Foundation fund and half to be distributed by Henkel to local organisations tackling the pandemic
  • Donation of personal and household hygiene products
  • Shifting production facilities to produce disinfectants

Since the start of the Global Solidarity Programme, several donations have been made by Henkel teams in the UK and Ireland; from financial donations through to making sure equipment manufacturers have the adhesives they need.

A financial donation of £12,500 has been donated to Raise, a charity that supports patients at West Hertfordshire Hospitals who were desperate to provide iPads to patients so that they could keep in touch with family and have access to entertainment.

In Ireland, the Adhesive Technologies team have been donating Loctite products for face shields and working with partners to supply 3D-printed components for PPE. The digital team have donated computer equipment to local schools, for children who don't have their own tech at home.

Beauty Care Retail has organised more than 30,728 products to be donated to various hospitals; The Beauty Bank, which is supporting NHS staff and key workers nationwide; and The Hygiene Bank, which is supporting people pushed into poverty, particularly people who are self-employed and have lost their income in the crisis, people on low incomes and people off sick with no sick pay. Products donated include shampoo, dry shampoo, toothpaste, shower gel and anti-perspirant.

A decision was also made by the Beauty Care Retail team that some of the Schwarzkopf LIVE hair dyes will not contain gloves in each pack for an interim period from June - July 2020 due to a global shortage. Locally, the team decided to offset the cost savings of £5,000 with a charitable donation to Raise in order to support their purchase of 100 iPads for deaf and hard of hearing patients who cannot lip read due to PPE obscuring people's mouths, as well as a special app that  translates spoken word into text on the screen.

Beauty Care Professional has also been busy getting much-needed products out to hospital workers. 18,000 products (mainly shampoo and conditioner) have been distributed to Nottinghamshire Hospitals; Kings College Hospital London; Coventry and Warwickshire Hospitals and the Hospital Heroes Campaign.

In addition, Beauty Care Professional brand, Indola, has made a donation to the Freelance Hairdressers Association and Schwarzkopf Professional launched Help Your Salon, to help salons generate income while they had to be closed, by selling digital vouchers for post-lockdown beauty services.

Continuing the efforts to support the global community during Covid-19, Schwarzkopf professional hosted a global digital charity festival as part of the global solidarity programme.

A 24hr global broadcast took place on 5 May, and was the first of its kind. In solidarity with the hairdressing industry, the festival organised by Henkel and Fritz Henkel Stiftung Organisation brought together some of the biggest names within the hair and beauty care sector – 36 hair artists from 19 countries and 13 time zones under one digital roof. They presented educational and creative content varying from hair colouring to haircuts and up-do tutorials. With the aim to raise funds through audience engagement and donations made during the live stream to United Ways and Red Cross charities with a percentage matched by Henkel and the Fritz Henkel Stiftung.

With winter on the horizon and uncertainty about whether Covid-19 might flare up again, it is highly likely that product donations from the UK and Ireland will continue for months to come.