WD-40 Company reported $195.1 million in net sales for its fiscal third quarter of 2026, a 24% increase over the same period last year. Operating income climbed 47%. Gross margin ticked up to 56.6%. For a company whose flagship product was invented in 1953, those are not maintenance numbers. They are acceleration.
The results, reported on July 9, showed double-digit growth across every trade bloc — Americas, EIMEA, and Asia-Pacific. WD-40's maintenance products, which account for 97% of total sales, generated $189.7 million on their own, up 26%. The WD-40 Specialist line grew 31%. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share hit $2.33, up 51% from $1.54 a year earlier.
The Disney Can That Worked
One detail buried in the earnings data deserves its own paragraph. WD-40 ran a limited-edition collaboration with Disney, sold exclusively through The Home Depot. The company reported that roughly 75% of those sales were incremental — meaning customers who bought the Disney cans were not simply choosing a different can instead of the regular one. They were new purchases that would not have happened otherwise.
That is a striking figure for a product that has been on hardware store shelves for seven decades. It suggests that WD-40's growth problem was never about the product itself. It was about giving people a reason to pick it up today rather than next month. A collectible can, placed in the right retail environment with the right partner, did exactly that.
Why This Matters Beyond WD-40
WD-40 is not a startup. It is not disrupting anything. It sells a lubricant in a blue and yellow can, and it has done so since Eisenhower was president. It has no app, no AI roadmap, no pivot narrative. And yet it just posted the kind of quarter that most venture-backed companies would celebrate as a breakout moment.
The wider lesson is about what marketing actually looks like when it works. WD-40 did not chase trends. It did not rebrand. It did not pivot to a subscription model or launch a social media challenge. It did three things well, and it did them consistently across every market it operates in:
Distribution expansion without discounting. WD-40 pushed into more retail locations and grew its e-commerce presence while keeping gross margins stable at 56.6%. Selling more cans through more doors — not selling cheaper cans through the same doors.
Product line extension around the core. The WD-40 Specialist line grew 31% by offering targeted formulas for specific jobs — contact cleaner, white lithium grease, penetrant — without diluting the flagship brand. Each product reinforced the parent name rather than competing with it.
Promotional creativity that drove new demand, not just shifted it. The Disney collaboration proved that a legacy product can still generate excitement when the promotion creates genuine novelty. Seventy-five percent incremental means the campaign created demand that did not previously exist.
The Math That Matters
Net income reached $30.2 million for the quarter, a 44% jump year over year. The company spends no energy explaining what its product does. Everyone already knows. It spends its energy making sure the product is available in more places, in more formats, and occasionally in more interesting packaging.
A 71-year-old product, growing at 24%, with margins most software companies would envy. The strategy was not complicated. It was just executed without distraction.