 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Stationery |
| Founded | 1887 |
| Headquarters | Kingswinford, , |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Oxford |
| Parent | Maped |
| Website | Helix |
Helix (also known as Helix Oxford or Maped Helix) is a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of stationery. It exports to over 65 countries, with offices in Hong Kong and US, and has its UK headquarters in Kingswinford in the West Midlands.
Helix was established in 1887 under the name 'The Universal Woodworking Company Ltd.'; it manufactured wooden rulers and metal laboratory apparatus. In 1894, it patented the drawing compass and, with it, launched the Helix brand, following on from the initial success of the compass and rule. In 1912, the company's first mathematical set was created; and, in 1935, the brand "Helix Oxford" was launched. In 1955 the company was renamed the Helix Universal Company, and moved its headquarters to Lye, West Midlands. In the 1960s, the name was changed to Helix International Ltd.
In 2004, the company's factory in Lye ceased production. [1] In January 2012, the company entered administration. On 8 February 2012 the company stated, "The joint administrators from Grant Thornton UK LLP are currently speaking to a number of interested parties and have received offers for the sale of the business as a going concern." [2] One week later, the company was bought by the French Maped group. [3]
When Helix joined the Maped Helix Group the company changed its name to Helix Trading Ltd and moved its UK headquarters from Lye, West Midlands to nearby Kingswinford, where it has its showroom. In 2014 it reported sales of £8.5 million. [4] [5]
The Oxford Set of Mathematical Instruments is a set of instruments used by generations of school children in the United Kingdom and around the world in mathematics and geometry lessons. The set is marketed in over 100 countries by Helix.
It consists of a metal tin embossed on the front with a drawing of Balliol College and the words 'THE HELIX OXFORD SET OF MATHEMATICAL INSTRUMENTS COMPLETE & ACCURATE' in white against a blue background.
Inside the tin there are two set squares, a 180° protractor, a 15 cm ruler, a metal compass, a 9 cm pencil, a pencil sharpener, and an eraser. (In the 1970s a stencil for drawing chemical apparatus was included.) There is also a fact sheet and glossary of mathematical terms with a school timetable printed on the back. The export version also includes dividers.
A pencil is a writing or drawing implement with a solid pigment core in a protective casing that reduces the risk of core breakage, and keeps it from marking the user's hand.
Stationery refers to commercially manufactured writing materials, including cut paper, envelopes, writing implements, continuous form paper, and other office supplies. Stationery includes materials to be written on by hand or by equipment such as computer printers.
A compass, more accurately known as a pair of compasses, is a technical drawing instrument that can be used for inscribing circles or arcs. As dividers, it can also be used as a tool to mark out distances, in particular, on maps. Compasses can be used for mathematics, drafting, navigation and other purposes.
Kingswinford is a town of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the English West Midlands, situated 5 miles (8.0 km) west-southwest of central Dudley. In 2011 the area had a population of 25,191, down from 25,808 at the 2001 Census.
Staedtler SE is a German multinational stationery manufacturing company based in Nuremberg. The firm was founded by J.S. Staedtler (1800–1872) in 1835 and produces a large variety of stationery products, such as writing implements, art materials, and office supplies.
Rotring is a manufacturer of technical drawing tools and writing implements. Established in Germany in 1928 as a fountain pen manufacturer, Rotring went on to be acquired by Newell Brands in 1998. The name "Rotring" directly translates to "red ring", which refers to the company's signature: a red band placed around the barrel of the pen. The company's name was changed to Rotring in the early 1970s to match the trademark.
Hensoldt UK, formerly Kelvin Hughes, is a British company specialising in the design and manufacture of navigation and surveillance systems and a supplier of navigational data to both the commercial marine and government marketplace.
Pilot Corporation is a Japanese pen manufacturer based in Tokyo. It produces writing instruments, stationery and jewellery, but is best known for its pens.
Brettell Lane railway station was a station on the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line which served the town of Brierley Hill in England.
A beam compass is a compass with a beam and sliding sockets or cursors for drawing and dividing circles larger than those made by a regular pair of compasses. The instrument can be as a whole, or made on the spot with individual sockets and any suitable beam.
George Philip (1800–1882) was a Scottish cartographer, map publisher and founder of the publishing house George Philip & Son Ltd.
William Ford Robinson Stanley was a British inventor with 78 patents filed in both the United Kingdom and the United States of America. He was an engineer who designed and made precision drawing and mathematical instruments, as well as surveying instruments and telescopes, manufactured by his company "William Ford Stanley and Co. Ltd."
Drafting tools may be used for measurement and layout of drawings, or to improve the consistency and speed of creation of standard drawing elements. Tools such as pens and pencils mark the drawing medium. Other tools such as straight edges, assist the operator in drawing straight lines, or assist the operator in drawing complicated shapes repeatedly. Various scales and the protractor are used to measure the lengths of lines and angles, allowing accurate scale drawing to be carried out. The compass is used to draw arcs and circles. A drawing board was used to hold the drawing media in place; later boards included drafting machines that sped the layout of straight lines and angles. Tools such as templates and lettering guides assisted in the drawing of repetitive elements such as circles, ellipses, schematic symbols and text. Other auxiliary tools were used for special drawing purposes or for functions related to the preparation and revision of drawings. The tools used for manual technical drawing have been displaced by the advent of computer-aided drawing, drafting and design (CADD).
A mathematical instrument is a tool or device used in the study or practice of mathematics. In geometry, construction of various proofs was done using only a compass and straightedge; arguments in these proofs relied only on idealized properties of these instruments and literal construction was regarded as only an approximation. In applied mathematics, mathematical instruments were used for measuring angles and distances, in astronomy, navigation, surveying and in the measurement of time.
Classmate is an Indian brand of student stationery products. ITC Limited launched its Classmate brand in 2003 with the notebooks category. Subsequently, Classmate added pens, pencils, mechanical pencils and geometry boxes to its portfolio. It uses eco-friendly and elemental chlorine-free paper.
Leonardt Ltd. is an English manufacturing company that specializes in finishing of metal components, manufacturing products such as corners for stationery such as leathergoods, photograph albums, menu covers, pattern and carpet books, binders and portfolios.
Maped is an independent, French, and family-owned brand in school supplies and accessories. Founded in 1947 in Annecy, Haute-Savoie, France, Maped is now present in 125 countries with 20 affiliates in the scissors, pencil and eraser markets. Its capital is €5,155,000 and 50% of the company's turnover is generated outside Europe. Maped creates and manufactures school, writing and office supplies as well as fun and playful activity kits and nomad food containers. Present in various sectors Maped owns 8 different brands: Maped, Maped Office, Maped Picnik, Maped Creativ, Maped Color’Peps, Joustra, Helit and Helix.
A colored pencil, coloured pencil, map pencil, pencil crayon, or coloured/colouring lead is an art medium constructed of a narrow, pigmented core encased in a wooden cylindrical case. Unlike graphite and charcoal pencils, colored pencils' cores are wax- or oil-based and contain varying proportions of pigments, additives, and binding agents. Water-soluble (watercolor) pencils and pastel pencils are also manufactured as well as colored cores for mechanical pencils.
The Queen's Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development (2014) was awarded on 21 April 2014, by Queen Elizabeth II.
John Bradley & Co was a company established in 1800 by John Bradley at Stourbridge in the West Midlands area of England. The company developed into a large industrial concern with furnaces, ironworks and mines. Under James Foster, John Bradley's half brother, it was instrumental in bringing the first commercial steam locomotive into the Midlands area in 1829. The firm stayed under family control until the early years of the 20th century when first the mining (1913) and then the ironworks (1919) were sold off. Part of the business continued to trade under the name John Bradley & Co. (Stourbridge) Ltd until after the Second World War.
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