New company revs up in Danbury

Armored AutoGroup was created last month as an independent company based in Danbury, after a private equity company bought it from Oakland, Calif.-based Clorox Co.

The new company has 160 employees at its Danbury headquarters and at facilities in Pleasanton, Calif., Painesville, Ohio, and the United Kingdom.

New York City-based backer Avista Capital Partners paid $780 million for the business, which includes the Armor All vehicle cleaning and protection solutions; and the fuel additive STP, which prolongs engine life by keeping fuel intake systems clean.

Other brands sold by Armored AutoGroup include Oomph! and Tuff Stuff cleansers, and Son of a Gun interior protectants.

Armored AutoGroup CEO David Lundstedt most recently was president of Sun Products Corp., a Wilton-based company formed from the combination of Unilever”™s North American laundry business and Huish Detergents Inc., a Salt Lake City-based company Lundstedt had led.

Lundstedt previously headed Honeywell”™s consumer products group based in Danbury. Honeywell has multiple automotive product lines including Autolite spark plugs; Prestone antifreeze; Fram oil filters; and Holts car care products such as Simoniz cleansers and Redex fuel additives.

Besides Simoniz, Armor All competitors include Westmont, Ill.-based Turtle Wax Inc.; the Black Magic products of Houston-based Sopus Products; and the California companies Meguiar”™s Inc. and Mothers Polish.

It marked a return to local control for the STP brand of fuel additives, which was launched in 1953 in Missouri before undergoing multiple acquisitions to end up in the hands of Danbury-based Union Carbide Corp. in 1985.

As might be expected, under Clorox the company”™s most visible marketing campaigns have revolved around NASCAR, with STP emblazoned on the hood of racing legend Richard Petty”™s stockcars, and Armor All a recent sponsor of Joe Gibbs Racing.

Armor All was launched in California, after a then-21-year-old chemist named Joe Palcher worked up a solution in 1962 to protect rubber, plastic and vinyl from ultraviolet radiation and ozone. Palcher began selling the stuff in 1966 under the brand Tri-don ”“ the name derived from the phrase “no dirt” spelled backward. In 1972, Alan Rypinski bought the rights to the product and coined the name Armor All, patenting the product in 1976. In 1979, San Francisco-based McKesson Corp. bought a controlling stake in Armor All, then in 1988 added the Rain Dance and Rally product lines of Borden Co. Over the next decade, other vehicle protection products would be added to the Armor All stable, followed by household products such as E-Z Deck Wash.

In 1996, Armor All sales totaled $186 million. Clorox bought the company in 1997 for $360 million, and the following year acquired STP from Union Carbide.

Under Clorox during the three-month period ending Sept. 30, the businesses now dubbed Armored AutoGroup earned $16 million (including the impact of income taxes) on revenue of $68 million, flat from a year ago.

“There is a big spring and summer business here; and therefore you see a pretty significant seasonality in terms of a profit and sales progression of this business,” said Daniel Heinrich, chief financial officer of Clorox, speaking with investors last month about the Armored AutoGroup units.