Henkel Teams with ALPLA to Upgrade Bowling Green Plant
Henkel plans to continue significantly investing in building infrastructure and equipment to enhance laundry product production at its Bowling Green, Kentucky, facility.
The company will partner with ALPLA, its packaging supplier, to invest toward a new bottle production area on the Henkel Bowling Green campus. Together, the investments total more than $130 million to increase efficiency, create capacity for growth and drive energy savings at the plant.
Henkel is the largest operation in the South-Central Kentucky Industrial Park, and the Henkel Bowling Green plant is the largest laundry plant in the company. At more than 2 million square feet, it is roughly the size of 40 football fields.
The investments by Henkel and ALPLA will create a new packaging operation that will be more than 170,000 square feet, run by ALPLA. Following the construction of the new packaging operation, ALPLA will hire and manage employees at the onsite bottle blowing operation, bringing specialized expertise and training to their expanding staff at the new operation.
The new packaging operation managed by ALPLA will begin operations in mid-2020.
“Over the last three years, Henkel has already invested more than $100 million in the Bowling Green plant,” said Plant Manager Kurt Naxera. “This new investment will transform our 25-year-old plant into the factory of the future with a modernized infrastructure, new equipment and modern IT systems – all designed to enhance efficiency and support future growth.”
The United States is one of Henkel’s biggest and most important markets, and the company has continuously strengthened its position here through nearly $5 billion in investments over the past four years, said Stephan Fuesti-Molnar, president, Henkel Consumer Goods North America. “This new investment at our flagship laundry detergent production facility will help us build on our strong market position in the U.S. laundry market, with our iconic brands that consumers know and love," Fuesti-Molnar said.
The partnership represents another step forward in Henkel’s international supply chain strategy to leverage its operational expertise to drive efficiency and sustainability, from manufacturing all the way through to our customers, said Dirk Holbach, Henkel corporate senior vice president, global supply chain, laundry & home care.