About Us
WD-40 Company is a global consumer products company
with brands that deliver above expectation performance
at extremely good value. Our products are found under
the sink, in the garage and in the toolboxes of the
world.
WD-40 Company's Australasian office is located in
Sydney, Australia. Our corporate office is located
in San Diego, California, U.S.A, and we have offices
throughout the world to support our brands.
WD-40 Company produces the lubricants WD-40 and 3-IN-ONE , Solvol
hand cleaner, and no
vac foam carpet deodoriser and Spot Shot instant stain remover.
WD-40 Company markets its products in more than 160
countries worldwide.
Our Worldwide Locations
Our History
In 1953, a fledgling company called Rocket
Chemical Company and its staff of three set out to create a
line of rust-prevention solvents and degreasers for
use in the aerospace industry, in a small lab in San
Diego, California.
It took them 40 attempts to get the water displacing
formula worked out. But they must have been really
good, because the original secret formula for WD-40 -
which stands for Water
Displacement perfected on the 40th
try - is still in use today.
Convair, an aerospace contractor, first used WD-40
to protect the outer skin of the Atlas Missile from
rust and corrosion. The product actually worked so
well that several employees snuck some WD-40 cans out
of the plant to use at home.
A few years following WD-40's first industrial use,
Rocket Chemical Company founder Norm Larsen experimented
with putting WD-40 into aerosol cans, reasoning that
as some employees had found uses for the product at
home, consumers may as well. The product made its first
appearance on store shelves in San Diego in 1958.
In 1960 the company nearly doubled in size, growing
to seven people, who sold an average of 45 cases per
day from the trunk of their cars to hardware and sporting
goods stores in the San Diego area.
In 1961 the first full truckload
order for WD-40 was filled when employees came in on
a Saturday to produce
additional concentrate to meet the disaster needs of
the victims of Hurricane Carla along
the U.S. Gulf coast. WD-40 was used to recondition
flood and rain
damaged vehicles and hasn’t stopped growing since.
 In 1962 WD-40 became available in Australia .
In 1969 the company was renamed after its only product,
WD-40.
WD-40 Company, Inc., went public in 1973 and was
listed Over-The-Counter. The stock price increased
by 61% on the first day of listing.
In 1988, WD-40 Company
established a corporate office in Sydney, Australia.
In
2000, WD-40 Company acquired Solvol ,
the leading heavy-duty hand cleaner brand in Australia.
This year we celebrate Solvol’s 90th Birthday, and the introduction of new Solvol with natural citrus oil.
WD-40 Company has since added other products to
our fortress of brands. Just like WD-40, no
vac foam
carpet deodoriser is another innovative product
that
has been developed to solve everyday house and car problems.
In
2003, the 3-IN-ONE Professional line
was born, with 5 great, hard-working products that cover specialist maintenance
needs.
In 2004, Spot Shot Instant Carpet Stain Remover was launched in Australia
From humble beginnings, WD-40 has grown in leaps and bounds, and is now
a common household name, used in numerous consumer and industrial
markets such as
automotive, manufacturing, sporting goods, aviation, hardware and home
improvement, construction and farming.
Over the years, thousands of WD-40
users have written testimonial letters to the company sharing their
often unique, if sometimes just plain weird,
uses
for the product. Some of the most interesting stories include the
bus driver in Asia who used WD-40 to remove
a python snake which had coiled
itself
around the undercarriage of his bus. Or when police officers used
WD-40 to remove
a naked burglar trapped in an air conditioning vent.
Very few brands will ever match the popularity of
WD-40. In fact, the variety and uniqueness of uses
for WD-40 proved so popular that The
WD-40 Book, (Bad
Dog Press 1997) featuring many user testimonials and
the wacky humour of the Duct
Tape Guys, was published
in 1997. But WD-40's literary legend doesn't end there.
The familiar blue and yellow can has been featured
in other books ranging from The
Big Damn Book of Sheer Manliness (General Publishing 1997), Polish
Your Furniture With Panty Hose (Hyperion 1995), WD-40
for the Soul: The Guide to Fixing Everything (TV Books 1999), and
Talking
Dirty With the Queen of Clean (Pocket Books,
1998) to college textbooks.
Our Philosophy
We are a global consumer products company, dedicated
to building brand equities that are the first or second
choice in their respective categories.
Our mission is to leverage and build the brand fortress
of WD-40 Company by developing and acquiring brands
that deliver a unique high value to end users and that
can be distributed across multiple trade channels in
one or more areas of the world.
We strive to cultivate a learning culture based on
our corporate values. We have a healthy discomfort
with the status quo. We reward those who take personal
responsibility in getting results to increase the profitability
and growth of our business.
The Environment
WD-40 Company has long been committed
to protecting the environment. Through the use of
our lubricant
products to extend the life of tools and equipment,
we help to save natural resources and reduce the accumulation of solid
waste.
Our products are also responsibly manufactured, with
recycled materials used in many packaging components.
As technology allows, we will continue to explore additional
practices that reflect our long-standing commitment
to the environment.
Over the years, we have consistently made changes
to benefit the environment. It is a responsibility
that we take very seriously. We consider the environment
itself to be one of our stakeholders, and increasing
the value we return to our stakeholders has always
been WD-40 Company's primary corporate mission.
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