Armor All Unveils New Line, Markets

Armor All Products Corp. said Tuesday that it has launched four new products and signed a major international marketing and distribution agreement.

The related moves are aimed at broadening the market for Armor All’s existing products and protecting the company against U.S. competitors who have found new niches in the automotive appearance arket.

One of the new products unveiled Tuesday at the national Aftermarket Parts and Accessories Assn. show in Chicago is Armor All Tire Foam, a spray-on tire cleaner, polish and protector that will compete directly with the spray-foam product introduced earlier this year by No Touch North America.

No Touch, based in Irvine, is owned by a large Japanese auto appearance products firm. Its president is former Armor All President Jeffrey M. Sherman.

Like the No Touch product, Armor All’s tire foam works without wiping or rubbing.

Other new products announced Tuesday by Armor All Products are Armor All Leather Care; Rain Dance Advanced Formula, a long lasting polymer polish; and Armor All Sponge Packs, disposable foil-wrapped sponges treated with Armor All Protectant.

Armor All’s new international marketing agreement, with wax and polish giant SC Johnson & Son Inc., will open a number of foreign markets to Armor All, said Marvin Krasnansky, vice president of corporate relations at Armor All’s majority owner, McKesson Corp. in San Francisco.

Krasnansky said the company hopes that the agreement will boost its international business to as much as 15% of total profits. The publicly traded company reported net income of $6.8 million for its fiscal 1990 year, down from $18.8 million the previous year.

The agreement calls for SC Johnson Wax to distribute Armor All Products in most of the 47 countries in Europe, the Far East, South East Asia and Latin America.

Excluded are the United States and Canada, Puerto Rico, Australia and New Zealand, where existing marketing agreements will continue, company officials said.