WD-40 Company

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WD-40 Company

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN US9292361071
founding 1953
Seat San Diego , California , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
management Garry Ridge (President and CEO )
Number of employees 480
sales 408.5 million US dollars
Branch Chemical industry
Website www.wd40company.com
As of August 31, 2018

Company headquarters in San Diego

The WD-40 Company is an American chemical company based in San Diego , California. It achieved notoriety and commercial success primarily through its product of the same name, the creeping oil WD-40 .

history

The company was founded in 1953 as Rocket Chemical Company and from the start has focused on developing an anti-corrosion agent . After Iver Norman Lawson, one of the company's four co-founders, was asked by a Navy officer about a solution to the Navy's rust problems, Lawson began developing a lubricating rust preventive that was easy to transport and store. In his 40th attempt, Lawson found, not to be confused with Norman B. Larson, a later corporate president of the company, the remedy with the internal name "Water Displacement, 40th formula" (German "Wasserverdrängung, 40th recipe") or in short: WD-40. Lawson sold his discovery to Rocket Chemical for a bonus payment of $ 500, according to interviews with family members.

The large US aircraft manufacturer Convair was already the first to use the new product, and it used it to protect the outer skin of its Atlas ballistic missile from corrosion . Employed Convairs are said to have stolen cans with WD-40 for private use at that time, as the product was not yet freely available in retail at that time. It was not until 1958 that it was bottled in spray cans that it was possible to market it in a meaningful way in retail. In 1969, the company renamed the WD-40 Company to reflect the importance of the only product at that time. Starting in 1973, the shares of the WD-40 Company were traded over the counter . According to the company, four out of five US households had WD-40 products in 1993, while over a million aerosol cans were sold weekly in the United States alone. In 1960 the company only had seven employees who sold around 45 cans a day from the trunk of their vehicles to nearby retail outlets.

From the mid-1990s, the WD-40 Company grew strongly through acquisitions, which resulted in brands such as 3-In-One Oil or 2000 Flushes being acquired. However, especially outside of the United States, these are usually less well known than the main product WD-40. Today the products are offered and sold in 176 countries worldwide.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ WD-40: Tribal Leaders , accessed February 14, 2019
  2. ↑ WD-40: 2018 Annual Report , accessed February 14, 2019
  3. ↑ Iris HW Engstrand, The Journal of San Diego History: WD-40: San Diego's Marketing Miracle , accessed February 15, 2019
  4. ↑ WD-40: Our History , accessed February 15, 2019

Coordinates: 32 ° 53 '58.2 "  N , 117 ° 6' 43"  W.