Beginning and evolution Chemical Compounds was founded in 1953 by three businessmen, Charles Dwight (Doc) Liggett, Jim Hill and Robert De Hart, 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". 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. An hour-long black and white film called
Way of a Champion was made of the 1964 and 1965 races, 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 was in turn 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. 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.
Energizer bought the Spectrum's auto care brands, including Armor All, A/C Pro and STP, for $1.25 billion in cash and stock.
Brand owners ==Oil treatment==