Winning Formula for Wet & Forget

“What have you spilt on my driveway!?”
The accidental household product success story that’s cleaning the globe one bottle at a time.

You’ve probably heard of Wet & Forget, but you might not know about the “serendipitous spill” that helped launch the iconic Kiwi brand.  Cast your mind back to the mid-70s. While John Walker was running around race tracks winning Olympic gold in Montreal, Wet & Forget founder, Rod Jenden, was running around roofs all over New Zealand.  Rod wasn’t worried about medals – just removing moss, mould and lichen from old tile roofs, then, a number of years later developed a protective roof coating system to re-surface these now-clean roofs, therefore extending their life.

It was 1995 – and it wasn’t just the roofs where the moss, mould and lichen was growing. When refilling the truck-mounted tanks, Rod and his team spilt countless litres of Wet & Forget on customers’ driveways over the years and were asked – countless times – “What did you spill on my driveway? It’s got a fantastic clean patch on it, but now I want to clean the rest!”

The penny finally dropped and Rod decided to stick a paper label to a bottle, fill it with Wet & Forget and  try a few radio advertisements to see whether anybody would buy this magic solution. They did! The rest, as they say, is history. 

The chemicals Rod was using back then were as harsh on the equipment as they were on Rod and the team, so he went about finding a much kinder solution.  Skip forward a few years, a few dollars and a truckload of trial and error, and Wet & Forget was truly born. Flashback to 1995 – above is one of the original bottles. Hero product Wet & Forget deals to moss mould and lichen on any exterior surface. The new, improved and faster application of Wet & Forget comes with a mixing nozzle and all made in New Zealand.

Over the next decade Wet & Forget’s popularity grew and grew to the point where overseas enquiries couldn’t be ignored. The Kiwi product that launched from a serendipitous spill began to gain traction in Australia, then the USA, the UK and beyond. Today Wet & Forget is sold in tens of thousands of outlets around the world.
In New Zealand, you still won’t find any Wet & Forget (or any of the brand’s other iconic Kiwi-made products) on a local hardware store or supermarket shelf. You’ll have to call in to one of their 21 locally-owned Wet & Forget stores around the country, to get your hands on the fantastic range that now includes: Shower Witch (shower cleaner), Miss Muffet’s Revenge (spider control), Hitman (organic weedkiller) and so many more.

After 25 years, the family of Wet & Forget products is still growing – with the team constantly developing new products, supplied to customers to trial for feedback before releasing to the wider market.

The brand’s focus on local expansion is still strong with the Timaru, Kāpiti and Mt Eden stores joining the group in the last 12 months making the products even more accessible.

Products made right here in New Zealand with uncompromising quality that do what they say they’ll do – backed up by a team with the knowledge and support you expect from a home-grown Kiwi company.

                              Wet & Forget is ready to clean-up at your place this season
                                                           and that’s no accident!

Wet & Forget’s new purpose-built production facility includes offices and a retail shop in Silverdale, Auckland.   Visit your local store:  Store Locator