Business View Magazine September 2018

204 205 M illiCare is a floor and textile care company that was founded in 1984, as a subsidiary of Milliken & Company, a manufac- turer and marketer of chemicals, fabrics, textiles, composites, and floor coverings for offices, hotels, airports, homes, and commercial environments, since 1865. Recently, Business View Maga- zine spoke with Steve Willis, milli- Care’s Managing Director, and Bill Helton, its Director of Franchise Development, to find out more about its operations as an inter- national franchise company. The following is an edited transcript of that conversation: BVM: How did milliCare origi- nate? Helton: “Milliken introduced milliCare in the mid-‘80s to start servicing their commercial cus- tomers who had purchased Millik- en carpet. In the late ‘90s, Milliken decided that it would work better as a franchise model, so they began franchising milliCare. From that point forward, we have been a franchise instead of a corpo- rate model where our employees would go out and service accounts. MILLICARE A COMPANY ON THE MOVE AT A GLANCE MILLICARE WHAT: A floor cleaning services company WHERE: Spartanburg, South Carolina WEBSITE: www.millicare.com