Henkel to buy US laundry and home care company Sun Products for $3.5 bn

German consumer and industrial giant Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, today struck a deal to buy US laundry and home care company The Sun Products Corp from Vestar Capital Partners for €3.2 billion ($3.5 billion) including debt.

The move comes three months after the Düsseldorf-based company struck a deal to acquire a range of hair care brands from its US rival Procter & Gamble in order to expand its footprint in emerging markets. (See: Henkel to buy a range of hair care brands from Procter & Gamble) Henkel said that The Sun Products Corp acquisition would make it the No 2 laundry care maker in North America.

Sun Products is a leading North American provider of laundry detergent, fabric softeners and other household products that include all, Snuggle, Wisk, Sun, Surf, and Sunlight.

The company also develops and manufactures laundry brands for leading retailers in North America.

In fiscal 2015, the company generated sales of about €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) in the US and Canada.

The Connecticut-based company employs around 2,000 people and has two production sites and one R&D center in the US.

''Sun Products will complement and strengthen our existing laundry and home care portfolio with well-established and successful brands in North America,'' said Bruno Piacenza, executive vice president and responsible for Henkel's Laundry and Home Care business.

''The Sun Products brands will enable us to further leverage Henkel's innovation leadership and increase our relevance to trading partners in North America.''

North America is one the most important regions for Henkel and the US account for the highest sales globally.

Henkel has more than 6,000 employees in North America and operates all three business units in the region that includes Laundry & Home Care, Beauty Care and Adhesives Technologies.

Its portfolio of well-known, consumer and industrial brands in the US include Persil and Purex laundry detergents, Schwarzkopf hair care products for retail and professional customers, Dial body care and Loctite adhesives.

Over the past decades, Henkel's business in North America has grown through acquisitions, including Loctite, Dial, National Starch´s adhesives businesses as well as the hair professional companies Sexy Hair, Kenra and Alterna.

In fiscal 2015, Henkel sales in North America were more than €3.6 billion ($4 billion).