Henkel has announced the launch of its Customer Application Center in Bengaluru, reinforcing its commitment to India’s rapidly expanding electronics manufacturing sector. The new facility will serve as a collaborative innovation hub where Henkel experts and customers can co-develop, test, and validate advanced adhesive and thermal management solutions for next-generation electronics manufacturing.
The new facility represents one of Henkel’s most significant application engineering commitments in the India Middle East and Africa (IMEA) region, and is designed to address a critical gap in India’s electronics value chain: the absence of localized, world-class application testing and validation infrastructure that allows manufacturers to develop, qualify, and scale advanced materials solutions without the time and cost of sending work overseas.
India’s electronics manufacturing sector has grown nearly six-fold over the past decade. The momentum is accelerating, driven by the rapid build-out of data center and AI computing infrastructure, 5G and fiber network expansion, electric vehicle charging systems, industrial automation, and advanced medical devices. Each of these sectors depends critically on high-performance adhesives, thermal management materials, and protective coatings, and each demand faster, more localized application engineering support than India’s ecosystem has traditionally been able to provide.
Bengaluru was a natural choice. The city’s concentration of semiconductor design talent, electronics R&D centers, and global OEM engineering teams makes it the single most important node in India’s electronics innovation ecosystem. Locating the center here puts Henkel’s application expertise directly alongside the engineers and manufacturers who need it most.
“India’s electronics manufacturing ecosystem is at an inflection point, and Bengaluru is at the center of it,” said S Sunil Kumar, country president – India, Henkel. “What manufacturers across our focus sectors increasingly need is not just world-class materials, but a local partner who can co-develop, test, and validate those materials under real production conditions, and help them move from concept to market faster. That is precisely what this center is designed to do. It is our most tangible expression yet of Henkel’s long-term commitment to India’s electronics future.”
The 5,000 square feet facility, of which approximately 2,400 square feet is dedicated laboratory and testing space, is built to replicate actual electronics manufacturing conditions, allowing customers to evaluate and optimize materials and processes before committing to production scale. Around 60-65% of the investment has gone into advanced lab and testing equipment, with 20-25% directed at customer co-development infrastructure.
The facility serves five high-growth sectors: telecom and 5G infrastructure, data centers and AI computing, power electronics and EV systems, industrial automation, and medical electronics. Its key capabilities span advanced thermal management testing, precision dispensing systems, electrical characterization tools, and rapid-cure chambers, supporting the full journey from prototyping and material validation through to production readiness.
The center directly supports India’s Make-in-India and Production-Linked-Incentive objectives by bringing application engineering, process optimization, and reliability validation onshore. A substantial share of activities that Indian electronics manufacturers previously had to route through overseas facilities, or simply defer, can now be conducted locally, compressing development cycles and accelerating time to market.
Henkel application experts will work side-by-side with customer engineering teams at the facility; co-developing solutions tailored to specific device architectures and manufacturing requirements. This collaboration model is central to the center’s design and is what distinguishes it from a conventional testing laboratory.
With its brands, innovations and technologies, Henkel holds leading market positions worldwide in the industrial and consumer businesses. The business unit Adhesive Technologies is a global leader in the market for adhesives, sealants and coatings. The company holds leading positions in laundry & home care and hair in many markets and categories around the world.
Henkel in India has two legal entities, namely, Henkel Adhesives Technologies India (a wholly owned subsidiary of Henkel) and Henkel Anand India (a joint venture company of Henkel and Anand Group). The adhesive technologies business operates primarily in the business-to-business realm in the country, while in the consumer brands business, Henkel is present in the ‘hair’ category.
Headquartered in Navi Mumbai, the adhesive technologies business has a footprint comprising four manufacturing sites, two innovation centers, a customer experience center, a flexible packaging academy and three application centers serving the footwear, consumer electronics and electronics industries, respectively.
