It all started with a brilliant idea and a strong work ethic. The CARMEX® success story fills us with great pride and serves as an inspiration to each and every one of us. Learn more about our history!
So he decided to take matters into his own hands and create a remedy for his chapped lips. In 1937, he began making CARMEX® by hand and filling the medicinal lip balm into its famous glass jars in his kitchen.
To get the product out to the public, Alfred personally visited pharmacy after pharmacy. If there was no interest, he would still leave the pharmacy a few free jars of his lip balm along with a postcard that could be used to reorder the product. Soon, the pharmacies had distributed the free samples, and the first reorders began trickling in to Alfred.
1930s
After Alfred Woelbing lost his job as a buyer at a department store in Milwaukee, he began manufacturing Lyptone, a lip care product. He sold the rights to it for $2,500, a substantial sum at the time. In 1937, Alfred Woelbing invented CARMEX® and founded the company Carma Laboratories, Inc. In doing so, he ushered in a new era of lip care.
1940s
Alfred initially sold his CARMEX® Classic lip balm out of the trunk of his car. Through word of mouth, he quickly gained more and more customers.
During World War II, the United States needed its entire supply of lanolin for the Army, where the wool fat was used to lubricate equipment and as a rust inhibitor. This severely limited production of CARMEX® Classic lip balm, as lanolin was one of its main ingredients.
After the war, Alfred continued producing CARMEX® Classic lip balm from home. He prepared the mixture in a simple pot, heated it, and filled it by hand into small glass jars.
1950s
Thanks to numerous positive recommendations, CARMEX® Classic Lip Balm soon became so popular that it was no longer possible to manufacture it in-house.
As a result, production of CARMEX® was moved to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, a western suburb of Milwaukee, in 1957.
1960s
Demand for CARMEX® continued to grow steadily, and the company also expanded its advertising efforts: for example, the company spent $10 a year to have “CARMEX” displayed on the license plate of the family car.
1970s
Although Alfred, who was now in his seventies, no longer made sales calls himself, he still held an important position within Carma Laboratories, Inc. In 1973,
his son Don joined the company and introduced assembly-line production. Three years later, Carma Laboratories, Inc. had outgrown its facility in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, and relocated to Franklin, another suburb of Milwaukee. This remains the production site to this day.
1980s
Starting in 1988, CARMEX® lip balm was available not only in the classic jar but also in a small plastic tube—marking the first major change in the packaging design of this long-established company.
1990s
According to a survey conducted by the trade journal *Pharmacy Times*, CARMEX® was the brand most frequently recommended by pharmacists for lip care products for several years in a row.
In 1999, our Click Stick with SPF 15 was launched.
2000s
In 2001, Alfred passed away, and an era came to an end. Alfred had worked eight hours a day well into his nineties and traveled over 60 km daily to get to the production facility.
A year later, our products were available in all 50 U.S. states, as well as throughout North America, Australia, Europe, and Asia.
Among the new products introduced during this decade was our lip balm in cherry and strawberry flavors (selected via an online vote).
To ensure that our soothing lip balm reached customers everywhere on time, another distribution center was opened in 2004.
In 2006, Carma Laboratories, Inc. appointed its first management team, breathing new life into the now 70-year-old company. The following years were marked by an expansion of the distribution structure and the broadening of the product range.
When Oprah Winfrey proudly announced on her show in 2008 that CARMEX® had already sold more than a billion tubes, she once again put the Woelbing family and the entire CARMEX® brand in the spotlight.
In 2009, Don Woelbing, the company’s chairman, passed away. Carma Laboratories, Inc., however, remained in the family and is still run today by Alfred’s grandsons, Paul and Eric Woelbing.