#AViewFrom Henkel North America: Greenville, SC

Did you know that Henkel North America employs approximately 8,000 employees in more than 70 sites across the U.S. and Canada? Collectively, these sites support two business units: Adhesive Technologies and Consumer Brands.

Our #AViewFrom series features select locations, sharing information and facts about our sites across Henkel North America.

Take a stroll down the grocery store aisle, and you’ll see numerous products that use water-based adhesives that are produced at Henkel’s Greenville, South Carolina manufacturing facility. If an e-tailer package is delivered to your front door, you also benefit from adhesive-related products manufactured in this facility. From tissue to paper towels and bottle labels to Amazon® padded mailers, adhesive materials made by the team at this site are in all of these products and likely part of your life. Learn more in this segment of #AViewFrom: Greenville, SC.

Henkel’s Greenville, SC operation runs 24 hours a day, five days a week, with three production shifts, making water-based adhesives and unique packaging formulations that are used for tissue and paper towel production, bottle labeling, food package sealing, and, perhaps most famously, durable impact-resistant – yet recyclable – padded mailers for the world’s largest e-tailers. Within this 82,000 sq. ft. facility, the tight-knit group of 46 employees manufactures EPIX® brand packaging chemistries, AQUENCE® brand tissue and towel adhesives, and LOCTITE® brand materials that seal food packages and secure paper and foil labels to glass and plastic bottles. Greenville supports Henkel Adhesive Technologies’ packaging and consumer goods business units, shipping products worldwide from this southeastern USA-based site.

"Our team is so focused and passionate about our work, ensuring we consistently produce the highest-quality materials."

Justin Mayberry, Plant Operations Manager

Over 500 adhesive products are made at the Greenville plant, and manufacturing that many distinct formulations takes tremendous knowledge, dedication, and teamwork. This group of employees – many who have worked here for over 20 years – is extraordinary; they support each other, take great pride in a job well done, and have fun together! The results speak for themselves. It’s why we hold an incredible safety record and enthusiastically take on products that outgrow other facilities.”

Constructed in 1969, the Greenville facility joined the Henkel network in 2004 as part of the company’s purchase of Sovereign Specialty Chemicals. Within the plant, four manufacturing cells house 21 kettles that, in 2024, produced 36 million kgs of material.  Like all Henkel operations, sustainability is imperative, and Greenville’s NoWa (no waste) project is making significant progress toward resource conservation. Water consumption has been cut in half, water reuse programs are in place, the transition to 100% LED lighting is underway, and digital sensors are installed throughout the facility to monitor and analyze energy use to drive efficiency. Greenville is also a zero-waste-to-landfill facility, diverting nearly all its production waste away from landfill sites for reuse or energy conversion.

Safety is the top priority for employees at Greenville, and the team takes great pride in the facility’s excellent safety performance and culture.

"We want everyone to go home exactly the way they came to work, which is why the plant’s safety culture is so vital."

Cristen Duenas, Safety, Health and Environment Manager

“The engagement in safety protocols is not a top-down directive; it is a mindset that our entire organization embraces because we sincerely care about each other and this plant’s success.”

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP

In an initiative that delivers sustainability and community enrichment, Henkel’s Greenville plant has partnered with a local non-profit to repurpose the site’s wooden pallets.

“Instead of disposing of pallets or spending fuel transporting them far from our site, we donate them to an animal refuge in our community called Izzie’s Pond,” explains Jackson Tarleton, Sustainability Specialist.

Partnering to Recycle Pallets

The Greenville plant, and the nearby Enoree, South Carolina adhesives facility, donate used wooden pallets to Izzie’s Pond, a nonprofit that sells some of the pallets to help fund its wildlife rescue and rehabilitation activities and uses others to house wildlife rescues. Henkel’s donation of items that would otherwise be treated as waste has enabled Izzie's Pond to maintain the critical medical care to over 500 animals injured or orphaned while minimizing the need to dispose of the pallets as landfill waste.

"Some of the pallets are used to construct enclosures that house rescued animals until they are rehabilitated and can return to the wild. It’s gratifying to be a part of this effort, where animals -- and our pallets! -- get a second chance."

Jackson Tarleton, Sustainability Specialist

CULTURE AND CAREER

Greenville’s small size is advantageous for employees eager to learn, move within departments, and gain valuable, marketable knowledge.

"Willingness to embrace new challenges offered at our Greenville site has led to new opportunities, and I’m a prime example."

Kory Anderson, Materials Coordinator

Kory Anderson came to Henkel after beginning his career in finance. “I started in quality control and am now the materials coordinator. I’m also part of our culture-based safety and sustainability teams and have even participated in some plant communications projects. There’s no lack of opportunity to upskill!”

Greenville coworkers' compassion and caring for each other is palpable; colleagues describe each other as family. Robert Johnson, a production operator affectionately known as ‘RJ’, is one of them. After a medical incident at home led to emergency surgery, RJ was deeply touched – but not surprised – by what he witnessed following his procedure.

"When I woke up, the plant management team was by my bedside. I have no immediate family in this area, but I have my Henkel family. The sincere support of everyone at this site is heartwarming and makes going to work every day a joy."

Robert Johnson, Production Operator