Our History

Founded in 1906, O-Cedar originally made waxes and cleaning polishes and later expanded to traditional brooms and mops. In 1962, The Drackett Corporation purchased the company, and over the next 30 years, Drackett grew the O-Cedar brand name in the marketplace by investing heavily in new product development and advertising. As a result, the Angler® Broom, the Power Strip® Sponge Mop, and the Twist ‘N Mop® Self-wringing Mop became the top three items in the cleaning industry. And “O-Cedar Makes Your Life Easier®” became a well-known slogan still used today.

In 1993, a venture capital company simultaneously purchased O-Cedar and Vining Industries (an equally large private manufacturer of cleaning tools with 600 associates owned by the Leventhal family since 1939). The new combined company, O-Cedar/Vining, became America’s largest manufacturer of cleaning tools. In the same year, the new company entered the commercial marketplace.

Todd Leventhal, an industry expert with more than 35 years of experience in the cleaning industry, bought the Commercial Division of O-Cedar Brands (the new corporate name) in 2003. This new company, which was named Nexstep Commercial Products, Exclusive Licensee of O-Cedar, has achieved remarkable growth. We have expanded our product line and top line sales by 700%, and we have acquired six mop and broom companies: Greenwood Mop and Broom (Greenwood, SC), Clore Mop (Danville, IN), Bouras Mop (St. Louis, MO), Cornelia Broom (Cornelia, GA), Hamburg Industries (Hamburg, PA), and Southern Mop (Nashville, TN). The acquisitions have fueled our growth, making Nexstep Commercial Products the leading cleaning tool company in the commercial marketplace.