| Type | Wood preservative |
|---|---|
| Owner | ICI Paints |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1937 |
| Markets | World |
| Website | Cuprinol |
Cuprinol is a brand of garden woodcare treatments made by ICI Paints.
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The product was developed in the 1930s to prevent dry rot and woodworm, essentially to waterproof wood. It is brand leader for garden woodcare.
In 1911, O.P.Christianseen in Denmark made a substance called Copper in Oil, or Cuprum in Ol. It was dissolved copper in organic solvents and helped to preserve fishing nets. It was made by A.S.Kymeia of Copenhagen and had a slightly green colour from the dissolved copper salts. The company was originally based in the UK from 1937. The factory was bombed in 1941. The brand was bought by Jenson & Nicholson in 1958, having bought half the company in 1951, and the factory was moved to Adderwell in Frome, Somerset in the former William & Pinchin & Co Ltd factory. Administration of the company moved to Frome in 1965. In 1970, the company was bought by Farbwerke Hoechst AG of Germany.
It was bought by ICI in May 1998. The company employed 230 people. ICI announced the closure of the Frome site in September 2000, and it closed in 2000 with production moving to various ICI Paints sites and administration moved to the ICI Paints site in Slough. The Frome site was turned into housing. In 2008, ICI Paints was bought by Dutch company AkzoNobel, based in Amsterdam.
Cuprinol specialises in products for garden wood and has a comprehensive range of products for sheds & fences, decking, garden furniture and garden buildings. It also does a colourful garden woodstain range called Cuprinol Garden Shades, which offers different tones of greens, blues, pastels and browns that can be applied on most exterior wood surfaces. The brand's portfolio includes products for different application methods such as brush, spray and pad, with the Cuprinol PowerPad, a battery-powered decking pad applicator, being the latest innovation.
Cuprinol was heavily marketed on television with an animated wooden stick-figure, almost super-hero musclely, character. It was voiced by Robbie Coltrane. Mr Cuprinol was heavily coated in the product, giving him a cherubic shine on his face and chestnut-coloured features. It had the slogan no-one does wood more good. Since 2008, Cuprinol's adverts have centred around The Cuprinol Wood Preservation Society, which copied the tune found at the end of the The Italian Job for The Self Preservation Society.
Due to a slight facial similarity, being well built, with often a deep tan, Peter Hain, the Labour MP for Neath since 1991, has been labelled by newspaper columnists as the Cuprinol Kid.
In 2009, Cuprinol started sponsoring The National Shed of the Year competition, culminating in National Shed Week during the first week of July. Founded by Andrew Wilcox, also known to 'sheddies' as Uncle Wilco, the competition aims to find Britain's most colourful, quirky and unique shed. The winner receives £1,000 plus garden woodcare products from Cuprinol.
There is now also an official Cuprinol facebook page, offering ideas and inspiration around the garden. Cuprinol also recently used the facebook page to run a garden competition in order to recruit people for its new advertising campaign.
Cuprinol is the official business partner of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in the UK, as part of a global partnership between AkzoNobel and the FSC. As part of this partnership, Cuprinol is helping to promote the responsible and sustainable use of wood as well as awareness of the FSC and its work.