Jotun: Impressive Projects

Jotun was founded in 1926 in Sandefjord, south-eastern Norway, and is now one of the largest paint companies in the world. Its colourful hues adorn interior and exterior walls in more than 100 countries worldwide, as well as the exteriors of some of the world’s most iconic buildings. 

Unsurprisingly, the company has a rich history. Jotun’s story begins in 1920 when its founder Odd Gleditsch Sr. opened a colour and ship supply store in Sandefjord. His timing was spot on: in 1920 the whaling industry was booming and Gleditsch Sr. soon had a roaring trade supplying to whaling fleets in Sandefjord, Tønsberg, and Larvik. 

Six years later, in 1926, Gleditsch Sr. saw the potential in manufacturing the paint himself and founded Jotun Kemiske Fabrik A/S. It was in 1931 when Jotun celebrated its first major success following the purchase of the patent rights to Arcanol, a red lead based paint that offered extremely good rust-inhibiting properties. The paint was a major innovation in protective marine coatings and was a huge success. 

Fast forward 20 years to 2017 and Jotun is represented in more than 100 countries all over the world, employing almost 10,000 people in 45 countries and currently has 37 production facilities in 21 countries. 

With Jotun having such a varied portfolio – its collection encompassing both delicate hues for the home and heavy-duty industrial paints – Zetteler gives you a rundown of the company’s most impressive, large-scale projects. 

The Eiffel Tower is painted every seven years and for last three paint jobs, the task of providing heavy-duty industrial paint has fallen to Jotun. Before Jotun won the initial contract in 2002, the paint had to undergo a rigorous three-year test programme to ensure it was fit for the job. Needless to say, Jotun passed the test with flying colours. The paint is applied in three shades of brown that gets progressively lighter with elevation in order to make the tower appear one consistent shade.

Dubai’s Burj Khalifa is mega. With a total height of over 829m and 160 storeys high, the glistening skyscraper currently holds the title as the tallest building in the world. A whopping 487,000 litres of Jotun paint and 122,000kg of powder coating was used to decorate the exterior of the towering structure. Jotun was also tasked with the interior paint job. Covering a total area of 700,000m², 26 custom colour shades from Jotun’s Fenomastic range were used to embellish the building’s walls. 

Opening to the public in 1999, the Petronas Towers enjoyed six years (1998 to 2004) as tallest building in the world. With Jotun gaining a reputation for embellishing the walls of extraordinarily tall buildings, it was only natural that the company’s paint was used for the paint job. The interior of the Petronas Towers have been coated with the smooth matt paint Jotun Strax.

The 65-storey Kingdom Centre is the third tallest tower in Saudi Arabia and houses a shopping mall, Four Seasons Hotel and a series of ultra luxury apartments. There’s also a stomach-churning skybridge that sits atop the building. The interior of the Kingdom Centre is painted using Jotun’s Fenomastic range. This gives the walls a smooth finish and ensures that they need little maintenance.