Nicholas McKay

The Helmac Products Corporation was a manufacturer and distributor of clothing care and fabric care products. Founded in 1956 in Flint, Michigan, Helmac was founded by Nicholas D. McKay, Sr. who is credited with inventing the modern lint roller. Helmac manufactured the successful "Lint Pic-Up" lint roller in Flint, Michigan, until 1999 when the company relocated to Georgia. Under the leadership of Nicholas McKay, Jr., Helmac pursued aggressive expansion, introducing dozens of new products and changing its name to Evercare in 2002. The company was eventually acquired by Butler Home Products in 2014, which further integrated with their parent company in 2018 under the name Bradshaw Home. McKay's lint roller design is still produced and sold under the Evercare brand.

Early history Helmac was founded in 1956 in Flint, Michigan by electrical engineer Nicholas D. McKay. In 1955, while on his way to chaperone a school dance with his wife, Helen, McKay wrapped masking tape around a toilet paper tube and affixed it to a wire coat hanger to remove some lint from his tuxedo. Soon after, he came up with the design for the modern lint roller.

In 1963, McKay partnered with Eric M. Roth to incorporate Helmac-Roth, Ltd. in Toronto, Canada. Helmac-Roth was exporting Lint Pic-Up rollers to more than 16 countries in 1966. Roth eventually left the partnership to form his own company: Roth (Plastics) Corporation.

Expansion and rebranding In 1993, Harvard Business School graduate, Nicholas McKay Jr., joined the family business with ambitions to expand the company beyond its flagship lint roller product. In the first few years of his tenure at the company, Helmac introduced 50 new products including potpourri, stain remover, and cedar clothing balls, and focused on its existing retail agreements with Kmart and Wal-Mart. McKay Jr. became CEO in 1997.

By its 40-year anniversary in 1996, Helmac had become an international consumer goods company with distribution in 46 countries and had achieved a 92% market share in North America within the clothing care category. Its products were sold in over 120,000 retail locations in the United States. The company established an additional manufacturing facility in Toronto and the headquarters for its European operations (Helmac Products Ltd.) in Southport, England.

In January 1998, the 3M company introduced a competing lint roller product.

Helmac experienced complications soon after the move. Of the 25 employees from the management office in Flint, less than 10 relocated to Georgia. Less than a dozen of the original 150 manufacturing plant employees relocated, which included none of the key plant managers. Within the prior eight months, Helmac acquired of the housewares division the textile products company, HBD, and also agreed to become early adopters of a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Barbara Tomaszewski, then Vice President of Distribution, reflected on these factors in an interview in November 2001: "We traditionally have been a very energetic company and have developed the unfortunate habit of biting off more than we can chew."

In January 2001, Helmac hired two consulting firms, PwC and FSL Group, to address software and logistics issues that resulted from the relocation. After two months of consultation work, Helmac's efficiencies had returned to normal, and by June 2001, sales were increasing above forecast values.

Dissolution and legacy In 2014, oneCARE was purchased by Butler Home Products, a division of Bradshaw International.

Founder Nicholas McKay Sr. died on November 15, 2014, at the age of 93.