The Glue Talk Blog

H.B. Fuller 2022

H.B. Fuller in 2022

Posted 12.20.2022 by Corporate Communications, Vice President, Investor Relations

Accomplishments Recap

As the end of the year fast approaches and the promise of 2023 shines on the horizon, at H.B. Fuller, we are taking time to reflect on this past year. We accomplished many of our goals, partnered with numerous companies around the world, created new product lines, volunteered in our communities, and said goodbye to our wonderful CEO and welcomed a new one. In no particular order, here are some of our notable accomplishments from this year.

New H.B. Fuller President and CEO

Celeste MastinPerhaps the biggest news of 2022 for H.B. Fuller was the retirement of President and CEO Jim Owens and the appointment of Celeste Mastin as H.B. Fuller’s new President and CEO. She officially became the President and CEO of H.B. Fuller on December 4. Mastin previously served as Executive Vice President and the Chief Operating Officer of H.B. Fuller and has over 30 years of experience in the chemical industry in various roles. Prior to joining H.B. Fuller, Mastin served as CEO of PetroChoice Lubrication Solutions, one of the largest distributors of petroleum lubrication solutions in the United States. She also served as CEO of Distribution International, Inc. and MMI Products, Inc. (a division of Oldcastle) and held senior leadership roles at Ferro Corporation and Bostik Adhesives.

She earned her MBA from the University of Houston and her BS in Chemical Engineering from Washington State University. We are excited about the coming years as Celeste guides our company to further success in connecting what matters.

Acquisition of Apollo and Fourny nv

In February of this year, H.B. Fuller Company acquired the Belgium-based company Fourny nv, a well-respected provider of construction adhesives with more than 70 years of experience in commercial roofing, construction and other private-label industrial specialties.

“This investment represents a strategic step toward achieving our vision of expanding our manufacturing capabilities, product range, talent pool and supply chain solutions in Europe, particularly in growing markets, like roofing and building envelope,” says Boz Malik, senior vice president, H.B. Fuller Construction Adhesives.

“It will better position us to access regional production and development capabilities, reduce freight costs and service lead times, and allow us to fully leverage and complement our construction technology portfolio more effectively in Europe.”

In addition to the acquisition of Fourny nv, H.B. Fuller Company also acquired Apollo, the United Kingdom’s largest independent manufacturer of liquid adhesives, coatings and primers for roofing, industrial and construction markets. Apollo will operate within H.B. Fuller’s existing Construction Adhesives and Engineering Adhesives business units and is expected to enhance H.B. Fuller’s position in key high-value and high-margin markets in the UK and Europe.

Retired H.B. Fuller President and CEO Jim Owens says that these acquisitions “… added deep market knowledge, strong customer relationships and local manufacturing footprints to our portfolio, which will enable H.B. Fuller to capitalize on access to regional capabilities in the UK and core Europe and fully leverage our Construction Adhesives technology portfolio more effectively.”

Both acquisitions will accelerate H.B. Fuller’s growth in Europe and allow the localization of products imported from the United States.

E-commerce Packaging

Our e-commerce packaging business partnered with Enimac, an international tape application equipment manufacturer that serves over 100 customers in more than 30 countries. The partnership with Enimac will allow products like Open Sesame® opening tear tapes and Close-Sesame™ closing tapes to be applied more efficiently.

Tania Montesi, H.B. Fuller global e-commerce packaging business development manager, says “As the e-commerce packaging market begins its next wave of exponential growth, our partnership with Enimac will strengthen our market presence because we can now leverage our performing tape and their application technology expertise to provide quality solutions and technical support to a wide range of packaging makers.”

Electric Vehicles

The shift to electric vehicles (EV) is quickly spreading across the globe, so H.B. Fuller is constantly developing and researching new and effective products for the EV market.

One of the biggest challenges in producing EVs is ensuring the battery used to power the vehicle is both crash and fire-resistant and provides long-lasting charges. Our answer to those challenges is EV Protect 4006. Our latest innovation for battery protection in electric vehicle applications improves battery performance and provides stability in vehicle collisions, which allows manufacturers to produce products that are safer for both consumers and first responders.

Alliance with 4evergreen

This year, H.B. Fuller joined the 4evergreen alliance, a cross-industry organization hosted by the Confederation of European Paper Industries (Cepi), with the purpose of improving the circularity of fiber-based packaging.

The 4evregreen alliance brings together a diverse network of around 90 organizations and stakeholders throughout the packaging value chain with the common goal of developing robust, fact-based guidelines for the future of fiber-based packaging and encouraging innovation to support those guidelines. The goal of the alliance is to raise the overall recycling rate of fiber-based packaging to 90% by 2030.

H.B. Fuller Global Sustainability Manager Elizabeth Staab says, “This is both an exciting and challenging period for the packaging industry. Collaboration throughout the supply chain is vital if we are to achieve sustainable changes. Sustainability is a core pillar of our business strategy at H.B. Fuller, and we must ensure that we continue to invest in projects that will deliver the tailored high-performance and low-environmental impact needed to answer the challenges facing the fiber-based packaging industry.”

World Adhesive and Sealant Conference 2022 (WAC)

H.B. Fuller was honored to be a sponsor of the long-awaited 2022 World Adhesive and Sealant Conference and have a sampling of our experts present there. After being delayed for several years due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, we were so excited to finally convene with our colleagues and business partners across the industry in April of 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. Our team of experts spoke on several topics ranging from the role of adhesives in sustainable packaging to electric vehicle battery module encapsulation techniques and more. In addition to our experts, our retired CEO, Jim Owens, delivered the conference opening keynote, and Ted Clark, our former COO and Advisor to the Executive Committee, participated in the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) panel. 

Innovation Academy

After meeting through Packaging Europe’s Global Packaging Innovation Forum in 2021, Daphné Deledicq, Chief Innovation Officer at Blue Box Partners, and Elizabeth Staab, Rigid Packaging Sustainability Manager at H.B. Fuller, realized that collaborating would allow them to create better solutions that support sustainability goals for the packaging industry. The idea was to combine the perspectives of two packaging suppliers to co-create new sustainable packaging concepts through sophisticated innovation tools.

The Innovation Academy was the product of that initial idea, and it combines Blue Box Partners’ paper and corrugated expertise with H.B. Fuller’s adhesive expertise to accelerate the development and validation stages of the packaging process. The first Innovation Academy took place in November 2021 at the H.B. Fuller Lüneburg location and was facilitated by the Board of Innovation.

Glue House Animation

Adhesives are present in almost everything, but they are often invisible to the naked eye. In 2022, H.B. Fuller developed a creative way for people to see where our adhesives are hiding in everyday life: The Glue House. This interactive virtual house allows a visitor to “walk” through its different rooms, floors and features and see the places where our adhesives and sealants are located. Visitors can click and interact with highlighted objects throughout the house and learn about which adhesives and sealants are used and how they function in everyday life. It incorporates adhesives and sealants across numerous different industries and shows their realistic applications. Check it out by going to our blog Glue House: Scavenger Hunt.

Glue House

Gorilla Pro® Ultimate Service Truck Build

H.B. Fuller partnered with Richard Rawlings and his team at Gas Monkey Garage to create the Gorilla Pro® Ultimate Service Truck. Richard Rawlings is the founder and owner of Dallas-based Gas Monkey Garage, a custom automotive repair shop that inspired the TV show “Fast N’Loud” that aired on the Discovery Channel. Since the final episode in 2020, Rawlings and his team and his team at Gas Monkey Garage® have continued to build and repair cars and have expanded into making YouTube videos and building their brand. 

Since partnering with H.B. Fuller, Rawlings and his team have exclusively used Gorilla Professional Grade® adhesives when repairing their shop equipment, and in July of 2022, set out to build and repair a truck using only GorillaPro® products. After six-week build process, Rawlings and his team unveiled the finished vehicle in August. This truck incorporates H.B. Fuller’s line of Gorilla Professional Grade® MRO products including threadlockers, retaining compounds, gaskets and sealants, instant adhesives, epoxies, urethanes and anti-seize lubricants. Since the reveal, the truck has been traveling across the country to different events for everyone to see the power of use Gorilla Professional Grade® adhesives.

These products are sold through industrial distribution channels, which can be found at www.GorillaPro.com. GorillaPro® products are now also available on the Gas Monkey Garage® website at GasMonkeyGarage.com.

GorillaPro

New Induction into the ASC Hall of Fame

InductionIn October 2022, the Adhesive and Sealant Council inducted H.B. Fuller President and CEO, Jim Owens, into the newly created ASC Hall of Fame.

The goal of the ASC Hall of Fame is the honor the “giants” who have made lasting and significant contributions to the adhesive and sealant industry in North America. After 36 years in the industry with 14 years at H.B. Fuller and 12 of those years as its President and CEO, and eight years on the ASC Board of Directors, Jim Owens has certainly become a “giant” in the industry and made positive, long-lasting changes that will be felt for years to come.

Heather Campe, Sr. Vice President for International Growth at H.B. Fuller and current ASC Board Chairman, and William Allmond, President of the ASC, presented Jim Owens with his award in November 2022 at the ASC’s Executive Leadership Conference.

100 Best ESG Companies in 2022

H.B. Fuller was recognized as one of the 100 best ESG Companies in 2022 by Investor's Business Daily®. Public companies selected for the 2022 list had to meet a list of criteria that included high Dow Jones sustainability scores and superior IBD technical and fundamental stock rankings. H.B. Fuller was recognized for being committed to sustainable and ethical business practices while still reaching return-on-investment goals.

50 Best Companies to Work for in Portugal

H.B. Fuller was recognized as one of the Top 50 Best Companies to Work for in Portugal for the second consecutive year by Exame Magazine Portugal. In collaboration with ManPower Group Portugal and AESE Business school, Exame Portugal created a list of companies that met their minimum requirements, then researched those companies and interviewed over 13,000 employees of their companies. For the second consecutive year, H.B. Fuller was selected as one of the top companies to work for in Portugal. Our 450 employees across the country are the glue that keeps the company together and strong, and we would not have received this award without them.

H.B. Fuller in the Community

As a global corporation, we know we have a responsibility to our global community. Throughout 2022, employees at H.B. Fuller bettered communities near and far through our Make a Difference Day volunteer events, different donation drives and more.

Blood Donation Since the start of 2022, several events have created a humanitarian crisis for the people of Afghanistan and Ukraine. H.B. Fuller responded with volunteer support and donations of products and funds to help support refugees from these countries. The company partnered with GlobalGiving and the Red Cross in Poland to offer donation opportunities to employees worldwide. Donations were matched by the company and used to provide food, shelter and special services to those who left their country and those who remained behind.

VolunteerHundreds of families who fled Afghanistan were resettled in Minnesota, where our World Headquarters is located. H.B. Fuller worked with the international support organization Alight to assist in their resettlement by providing funds, donating household products and supplying employee volunteers to help them adjust. Our support helped provide comfortable, safe homes for families relocating with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

In October, H.B. Fuller kicked off Make a Difference month, where every location around the world was encouraged to host and participate in a volunteer project. Our employees embraced this idea, and volunteer projects were hosted from our World Headquarters to our China offices and everywhere in between. We are so grateful to our employees around the world for taking time out of their busy lives to better their local communities.

Wrapping Up 2022

As 2022 draws to a close, we now turn and focus our attention to the promise of 2023. 2022 was a landmark year for H.B. Fuller full of achievements and accomplishments, and although we are sad to see it go, we know that the future is bright. To all our employees and customers, thank you for helping us connect what matters this year, and we wish you a happy and healthy new year.





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