About O-Cedar Commercial
About O-Cedar Commercial
O-Cedar traces back to 1906, when the Channell Chemical Company of Chicago introduced a vegetable oil-based floor polish in 1907 made with cedar leaf oil, giving the product and eventually the company its name. O-Cedar later expanded from polishes and waxes into traditional brooms and mops, building a cleaning tools catalogue that would pass through several corporate owners over the following decades, including American-Marietta, Martin Marietta, and Drackett.
In 1993, a venture capital firm combined O-Cedar with Vining Industries, an equally large cleaning tools manufacturer that the Leventhal family had owned since 1939, creating O-Cedar/Vining as America's largest manufacturer of cleaning tools. O-Cedar entered the commercial marketplace in 1997, and in 2003 industry veteran Todd Leventhal bought the Commercial Division and renamed it Nexstep Commercial Products as the exclusive licensee of the O-Cedar name for commercial channels.
Freudenberg Household Products acquired O-Cedar in 2003 and relocated its headquarters back to the Chicago area where the brand originated. ChatMRO's catalogue covers O-Cedar Commercial's mops, brooms, and cleaning tools by surface type so janitorial and facilities teams can match the right tool to a given cleaning task.
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Frequently asked questions
Where did the O-Cedar name come from?
The name originated from a 1907 vegetable oil-based floor polish made with cedar leaf oil, produced by the Channell Chemical Company of Chicago. The polish's popularity led the company to adopt O-Cedar as its brand name before expanding into brooms and mops.
What is the relationship between O-Cedar and Nexstep Commercial Products?
In 2003, Todd Leventhal purchased O-Cedar's Commercial Division and renamed the new company Nexstep Commercial Products, operating as the exclusive licensee of the O-Cedar name for commercial markets. This separated the commercial cleaning tools business from O-Cedar's consumer retail products.
How did O-Cedar become the largest cleaning tools manufacturer in America?
In 1993, O-Cedar merged with Vining Industries, a similarly large cleaning tools manufacturer owned by the Leventhal family since 1939, forming O-Cedar/Vining. That combination created what was then America's largest manufacturer of cleaning tools.
Who owns O-Cedar today?
Freudenberg Household Products, a global company based in Weinheim, Germany, acquired O-Cedar in 2003 and moved its headquarters back to the Chicago area where the brand was originally founded. The company continues to manufacture mops, brooms, and cleaning tools under that ownership.
When did O-Cedar start serving commercial and janitorial customers?
O-Cedar Brands entered the commercial marketplace in 1997, following decades of focus on consumer retail cleaning products. That commercial entry eventually led to the 2003 spinoff that became Nexstep Commercial Products.