The Company Behind WD-40 Also Owns 9 Other Brands

There's a decent chance you have a can of WD-40 somewhere in your home or garage. You can use WD-40 in your lawn or garden to keep your mower or garden tools in top condition. It can also be used to silence squeaky hinges and loosen stuck drawers or windows. The WD-40 Company makes a variety of WD-40 products, but that's not all they make! Since their founding in 1953, WD-40 Company has owned and produced ten other brands, nine of which it still owns to this day. From its first acquisition of 3-IN-ONE to its most recent acquisition of GT85, let's take a look through the brand portfolio of this historic company.

When it was first founded, WD-40 Company was called Rocket Chemical Company. It was renamed in 1970. At the time, they only made and sold WD-40, so it made sense to name the company after their product. They wouldn't acquire another brand for another 25 years after that, spending their time opening global offices instead. Even as they began expanding the number of brands under their label, they did so slowly. Since the 1960s, WD-40 Company's strategy has been to focus hard on a few products rather than diversifying as much as possible. It's a plan they continue to follow, as WD-40 Company CEO Steve Brass noted to Business Wire in 2025 following the divestment of 1001, a UK-based carpet cleaner brand. The brands they do acquire tend to be cleaning products or mechanical lubricants, which makes sense. There are plenty of surprising uses for WD-40, but it is generally used as a cleaner or lubricant.

WD-40 Company's first acquisition happened in 1995 with 3-IN-ONE — a machine maintenance and home improvement brand that includes a variety of lubricants and oils. It was initially founded in 1894 and began with a three-in-one bicycle maintenance oil. The initial oil allowed cyclists to lubricate, clean, and rust-proof their bicycles with just one product. After it joined the WD-40 team, 3-IN-ONE began expanding their product line. They branched out from bicycles to include RVs, trailer hitches, and even garage doors. If you've ever wondered how to lubricate a garage door, now you know that there's a spray for that.

The second acquisition came four years later, in 1999. Lava, a hand soap brand founded in 1893, is known for being tough on grime, grease, and other substances that you might get on your hands during a hard day's work. The name Lava comes from their use of pumice, a stone created when lava cools and hardens. Pumice is mildly abrasive and non-toxic, making it a popular cleaning tool. For WD-40 Company, the fact that WD-40 and Lava soap were both commonly used by people who worked with tools and in garages meant that they were a perfect match.

Following Lava, Solvol was acquired by WD-40 Company in 2000. Solvol is another hand soap company that uses pumice to enhance the cleaning power of the soap, so you may be able to see why this was the next brand WD-40 Company picked up. Founded in 1915, Solvol is an Australian-based soap brand. The liquid soap contains perlite, a volcanic rock similar to pumice that you might be familiar with if you garden regularly. Although it was briefly discontinued in 2022 due to difficulties with manufacturing, Solvol bar soap returned to the market in 2024 with a new formula.

2001 brought three new brands to WD-40 Company as they acquired Global Household Brands. Carpet Fresh is a carpet cleaner and deodorizer that is available as both a powder and spray foam. Although it may seem odd to go from WD-40 to carpet cleaners, adding soap to their brand portfolio made them take a closer look at the grocery store and what other cleaners were sold alongside theirs. While WD-40 Company still owns Carpet Fresh, the production rights are actually licensed by Malco Products, who have been the sole producers of both the powder and foam since 2020.

X-14 was another brand that joined WD-40 Company from Global Household Brands in 2001, and it is also a line of cleaning products. X-14 focuses specifically on bathroom cleaners. Originally founded in the 1980's, a variety of bathroom cleaning products have been made as part of the X-14 brand. Although some lines, such as their all-around bathroom cleaner and their shower spray, have been discontinued, you may still be able to find them in some retail stores while supplies last. Currently, they offer toilet bowl cleaners, as well as a mildew remover and cleaning wipes produced through Malco Products.

As you might guess from the name, 2000 Flushes is another line of bathroom cleaning products focused primarily on toilet cleaners. It was also the third brand acquired by WD-40 Company in 2001. 2000 Flushes was founded in the 1980's, debuting with an automatic toilet bowl cleaner that they continued to refine and build on over the years. Shortly after joining the WD-40 team, 2000 Flushes also branched out into charity, hosting a 'musical toilets' game (a toilet-themed twist on musical chairs) in 2006 that resulted in $20,000 and 20 toilets being donated to several charities, plus a variety of other prizes for other attendees.

One year later in 2002, WD-40 Company acquired the Spot Shot brand after buying Heartland Corporation. This continued WD-40 Company's foray into cleaning supplies, as Spot Shot is a stain remover for carpets. It was first introduced in 1983 as an aerosol spray. After joining the WD-40 Company, Spot Shot underwent a few changes. First a trigger spray bottle was introduced, then the formula changed. The newer formula, introduced in 2008, is non-toxic and biodegradable, as well as coming in recyclable packaging. This allowed them to expand their offerings to include carpet cleaners made for removing pet stains.

No Vac was added to WD-40 Company's brand portfolio in 2002 as well, but it didn't come from Heartland Corporation. Instead, it launched later in the year and was an internal brand rather than an external acquisition. It was developed by WD-40 Company's team and launched in Australia, where it is still exclusively sold. No Vac is a carpet cleaning brand that includes stain removers, deodorizers, and sanitizing sprays. The name comes from the fact that, after applying No Vac, you don't need to vacuum your carpet to remove the product. Instead, you can simply let it sit.

WD-40's most recent brand acquisition came in 2014. GT85 is a return to form in some ways, as it is a bicycle maintenance brand. It didn't hurt that, only 2 years earlier, WD-40 started a bicycle-centric product line, making GT85 highly compatible. GT85 officially launched in 1985, hence the name, although development began earlier. In addition to maintaining your bicycle, GT85 can be used for many of the same things as WD-40, including lubricating hinges and stuck bolts. It is a UK-Based brand, and there's actually one particularly interesting difference between WD-40 and GT85 — GT85 smells like lavender.