Dulux in Australia and New Zealand
In Australia and New Zealand, Dulux has been involved with the manufacture and marketing of paint and related products since 1904 and is the largest manufacturer of paint products in Australia.
Dulux had its origins in H. L. Vosz, a large glass fabrication business and Australia's first major paint manufacturer. In 1912, the Australasian United Paint Company Limited was founded in South Australia, with an office in Lipson Street, Port Adelaide, to take over the paint business of H. L. Vosz as a going concern,[6] and over the next few years the factory underwent significant modernization.[7] The glass business continued independently under the Vosz name (although its founder had died nearly 30 years previously), but became Clarkson Ltd in 1915, in response to anti-German sentiment.
In 1919, the Australasian United Paint Co was purchased for £40,000 by British Australian Lead Manufacturers, a consortium of British white lead manufacturers, with their Australian office in Melbourne[8] or in Sydney.[9] The company became BALM Paints In the 1950s, it opened a new factory and Central Research Labs in Clayton, Victoria.
Taking its cue from survey evidence that the Australian public had no idea what BALM Paints was, but that everyone knew Dulux, the company changed its name in 1971 to Dulux Australia.
By the 1990s, the Australian paint market was dominated by Wattyl, Taubmans and Dulux.[10]
Until 1997, Dulux Australia was a key player in the ICI Paints World Group, after which ICI informed ICI Australia of its intention to sell its 62% share in the company as part of raising the capital needed for acquisition of part of Unilever. The former ICI Australia became an independent company on 2 February 1998 and was named Orica. In Australia and New Zealand, Dulux was wholly owned by Orica until July 2010, when DuluxGroup was spun off as a separate company on the Australian Securities Exchange. Fairground Attraction's song "Perfect" was used for an advertisement on television.
Dulux Australia was formerly a major player in all paint markets (decorative, automotive, refinish, industrial, powder coatings), but sold off the technical markets (and the Clayton site) to PPG Industries, concentrating on decorative, woodcare and powder coatings, and moving to a new site on Dandenong Road, Clayton, previously owned by Pond's.
Television advertisements featured the Dulux Dog (Penny), and several hundred other Old English Sheepdogs, racing around collecting cricket stumps, drumsticks, wooden spoons, sticks, and other items, to stir a newly opened pot of Dulux "Wash and Wear" paint.[11] The accompanying music was "I Woke Up Today", by American band Port O'Brien, from the album "All We Could Do Was Sing".[12]
In August 2019, Dulux Group was acquired by Nippon Paint and delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange.[13][14]
