Who owns Lava?
Lava is owned by WD-40 Company (the United States, NASDAQ: WDFC), which has owned the brand since 1999.[1]
Evidence: WD-40 Company Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2025-10-27, SEC EDGAR, 27 October 2025. Verified from filings; last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- WD-40 Company verified
- Owned since
- Owner HQ
- 🇺🇸 United States, San Diego, California
- Origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Founded
- 1893
- Category
- Personal care & beauty › Bath, soap & hand care › Bar soap & body wash
- Parent ticker
- NASDAQ: WDFC
- Last verified
- · 1 sources
About Lava
Lava is a heavy-duty hand soap containing pumice, sold since 1893 for removing grease, ink and paint from the hands of people who work with them. WD-40 Company acquired the brand in 1999. The pumice is ground volcanic rock, and it works by abrasion rather than by dissolving what ordinary soap cannot lift.
What WD-40 Company's annual report says about Lava
Sentences about Lava from WD-40 Company's latest annual filing[1], copied word for word.
Lava The Lava brand consists of heavy-duty hand cleaner products which are sold in bar soap and liquid form through hardware, grocery, industrial, automotive and mass retail channels as well as through online retailers primarily in the U.S. X-14 The X-14 brand is a line of quality automatic toilet bowl cleaners.
How often WD-40 Company names Lava in its annual report
A plain count of the times the name appears in the text of each annual report, not counting the start of a sentence. A brand that an owner writes about more is usually one it treats as central.
Ownership timeline of Lava
- 1999 – present WD-40 Company [1] verified
Where Lava sits in WD-40 Company
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full WD-40 Company ownership tree →
See the full WD-40 Company brand portfolio (4) →
Other brands owned by WD-40 Company
WD-40 Company controls 4 brands on Brandtree.
Founded in the 1890s
- 3-IN-ONE (1894)
Other brands in bar soap & body wash, and who owns them
The 42 brands in bar soap & body wash on Brandtree belong to 29 owners. The largest is Unilever, with 5.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Dove | Unilever | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
| MediHerb | Trade Kings | 🇿🇲 Zambia |
| Cavaillès | Bolton Group | 🇮🇹 Italy |
| Cristalino | CasaLuker | 🇨🇴 Colombia |
| Protex | Colgate-Palmolive | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Bath Roman | Earth | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Jovia | Jyothy Labs | 🇮🇳 India |
| Ivory | Procter & Gamble | 🇺🇸 United States |
About the owner: WD-40 Company
WD-40 Company is a publicly listed company headquartered in San Diego, California, United States, founded in 1953. Brandtree records 4 brands under its control, and it is listed as NASDAQ: WDFC.
WD-40 Company was founded in San Diego in 1953 as the Rocket Chemical Company, and its single product succeeded on the fortieth attempt at a water displacing formula, which is where the name comes from. It was developed to prevent corrosion on Atlas missile skins before employees started taking cans home.
WD-40 Company: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
🇺🇸 Lava and other American brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,549 brands that began in the United States. 478 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Lava is not one of them.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of Lava?
The parent company of Lava is WD-40 Company, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Is Lava American?
Yes. Lava originated in the United States in 1893 and its owner, WD-40 Company, is also headquartered in the United States.
Since when has WD-40 Company owned Lava?
WD-40 Company has owned Lava since 1999.
Is Lava still owned by WD-40 Company?
Yes. As of 10 October 2026, Lava is still owned by WD-40 Company. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (1) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] WD-40 Company Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2025-10-27 — SEC EDGAR, SEC Form 10-K, published 27 October 2025; retrieved 16 September 2026.
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