 | |
| Product type | Automotive performance products |
|---|---|
| Owner | Energizer Holdings |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1954 |
| Previous owners |
|
| Website | www |
STP is an American brand of automotive aftermarket products, especially lubricants such as motor oil and motor oil additives. The name began as an abbreviation of Scientifically Treated Petroleum. The brand has been owned by Energizer Holdings since November 2018. [1]
Chemical Compounds was founded in 1953 by three businessmen, Charles Dwight (Doc) Liggett, Jim Hill and Robert De Hart, [2] with $3,000 in start-up capital in St. Joseph, Missouri. Their sole product was STP Oil Treatment; the name was derived from “Scientifically Treated Petroleum”. [3] In 1961, the company was acquired by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation.
Studebaker briefly tied STP into its advertising as an abbreviation for “Studebaker Tested Products”. However, Studebaker-Packard CEO Sherwood Egbert felt that STP could one day outpace its parent company and recruited Andy Granatelli as the CEO of STP to help raise the product’s image. At the same time, Granatelli became the public face of STP, often wearing a white suit emblazoned with the red oval STP logo to races, distributing thousands of all-weather STP stickers. Granatelli ran two Novi specials at the 1964 Indianapolis 500. Jim Hurtubise and Bobby Unser were the drivers. There was a film made of the race centering on the Novis.
Studebaker exited the auto manufacturing and sales business in 1966 and launched new strategies to expand and develop its other corporate business units including the Studebaker petroleum division. Under the new Studebaker strategy, STP sales continued to grow. to the point where it was spun off into a publicly traded company in 1969. In 1976, it was acquired by Esmark which itself was purchased by Beatrice Foods in 1984. Beatrice sold STP to Union Carbide the next year. In 1986, Union Carbide's auto products, which included Prestone and Simoniz, were subject to a leveraged buyout. The resulting company, First Brands, was purchased by Clorox in 1998.
In the fall of 2006, STP fuel additives began being used in Marathon gasolines, likely to compete with Chevron's Techron additive. [4]
In 2010, Clorox sold Armor All and STP to Avista Capital Partners. It named the business Armored AutoGroup. In April 2015, the Armored AutoGroup was acquired by Spectrum Brands. [5] Energizer bought the Spectrum's auto care brands (including Armor All, A/C Pro and STP) for $1.25 billion in cash and stock. [1]
In 1976, STP faced a consumer protection order that required it to have scientific backing for certain statements and prohibited making false claims. In 1978, it paid a $500,000 civil penalty over claims. In 1995, STP paid $888,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges of false advertising. [6] [7]
STP Oil Treatment contains zinc dithiophosphate as an anti-wear additive.
In 1970, STP CEO Andy Granatelli founded the STP Formula One Team. Mario Andretti was hired to drive. The team competed in a total of five races running a March Engineering chassis, their best result being a third place at the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix. In 1972 Granatelli agreed to sponsor NASCAR champion Richard Petty, [8] but their deal almost fell apart before their first race. Granatelli insisted the car be STP day-glo red. Petty held out for his iconic Petty blue, and neither would budge. The resulting two-tone red and blue scheme became more famous than either color alone.
STP sponsored Petty through the end of his driving career in 1992, then Bobby Hamilton, and John Andretti in Petty Enterprises' famous #43. That partnership ended shortly after its acquisition by Clorox. STP and the Petty family hold the second-longest relationship in automobile racing history (1972–2000) (Kenny Bernstein and his son Brandon were sponsored by Budweiser for two years longer (1979–2009)).
In August 2012, STP announced that it would be the title sponsor of the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series in 2013. [9]
On February 21, 2013, STP announced a return to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series sponsorship in a multi-year deal for the STP Gas Booster 500 starting April 7, 2013 at Martinsville Speedway along with a return as primary sponsor of the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 for the 2013 STP Gas Booster 500. [10] STP also sponsored the Xfinity Series race STP 300 from 2011 to 2013 at Chicagoland Speedway.
Sunoco LP is an American master limited partnership organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Dating back to 1886, the company has transitioned from a vertically integrated energy company to a distributor of fuels. It was previously engaged in oil, natural gas exploration and production, refining, chemical manufacturing, and retail fuel sales, but divested these businesses. Sunoco is the largest independent distributor of fuels in the United States.
Energizer Holdings, Inc. is an American manufacturer and one of the world's largest manufacturers of batteries, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. It produces batteries under the Energizer, Ray-O-Vac, Varta, and Eveready brand names and formerly owned several personal care businesses until it separated that side of the business into a new company called Edgewell Personal Care in 2015.
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Marathon Petroleum Corporation is an American petroleum refining, marketing, and transportation company headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil until a corporate spin-off in 2011.
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Hess Corporation is an American global independent energy company involved in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. It was formed by the merger of Hess Oil and Chemical and Amerada Petroleum in 1968. Leon Hess served as CEO from the early 1960s through 1995, after which his son John B Hess succeeded him as chairman and CEO. The company has agreed to be acquired by rival oil company Chevron.
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Pine-Sol is a registered trade name of the Clorox Company for a line of household cleaning products, used to clean grease and heavy soil stains. Pine-Sol was based on pine oil when it was created in 1929 and during its rise to national popularity in the 1950s. By 2016, Pine-Sol products sold in stores no longer contained pine oil, which was done to reduce costs. The old Pine-oil containing formula is sometimes available online only.
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Anthony "Andy" Granatelli was an American businessman, most prominent as the CEO of STP as well as a major figure in automobile racing events.
The 53rd International 500 Mile Sweepstakes was an auto race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Friday, May 30, 1969. It was the third round of the 1969 USAC Championship Car season. Polesitter A. J. Foyt led the race in the early stages, looking to become the first four-time winner of the 500. Near the halfway point, however, a lengthy pit stop to repair a broken manifold put him many laps down. Despite a hard-charging run towards the end, he wound up managing only an eighth-place finish, 19 laps down. Lloyd Ruby, a driver with a hard-luck reputation at the Speedway, was leading the race just after the midpoint. During a pit stop, he pulled away with the fueling hose still attached, ripped a hole in the fuel tank, and was out of the race. The incident put Mario Andretti in the lead for rest of the way.
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