After 12 years of exporting, Kiwi cleaning brand Wet & Forget is starting to wipe the floor in the ‘hard to crack’ US market.
The company is now selling millions of litres of its flagship Wet & Forget product plus an increasing number of their other products into the lucrative American market through more than 20,000 outlets, including Walmart and Lowes to name just a few of the big box stores throughout the US.
That’s solid growth over 12 years for the New Zealand business that started as a one-man operation in the mid 70’s.
“Breaking into the American market was hard going. It took years before the product sold there in any volume,” says Wet & Forget founder Rod Jenden.
“We used to go to these trade shows and we’d be lucky if we spoke to the janitor.
“Nobody wanted to know us. It was embarrassing. But now America is our biggest international market, and we’re continuing to expand our product range there all the time.”
Wet & Forget’s other international markets are the UK and Australia, with plans to expand into Germany, France and Japan next year.
The company also exports dozens of containers of its patented Wet & Forget applicator nozzles to the US each year.
The nozzles – designed for high, hard to access areas around the home – are the result of many years of research and development and are now made in Whanganui.
“From Whanganui to Washington, Walmarts and beyond – and a world-beater to boot. We quite like that,” says Jenden.
