Town cleans up in the cleaning supply business

Every day, hundreds of thousands of people around North America clean their homes and businesses with products produced by Arcola's broomcorn industry.

This Douglas County community is the home of three different businesses related to the industry: Libman, the Thomas Monahan Co. and the Humboldt Broom Co.

"One of the things that makes Arcola very unique is the diversity of industry we have available for a community this size," village administrator Bill Wagoner said.

Libman is one of the leading household product manufacturers in the world. Its products are sold at Wal-Mart, Target and Menard's.

William Libman, a broom manufacturer in Chicago, built his first plant in central Illinois a few miles north of Arcola, in Tuscola, in 1932. The facility moved to its current location in Arcola in the 1950s. Today, it employs 335 people.

Through the years, the company expanded its product line to include more than just brooms. Mops, brushes and other cleaning tools are all manufactured in Arcola. The company's signature product these days, according to Libman marketing director Brian Sowinski, is its Wonder Mop.

"It simplified the mopping process and allows uses to clean their floors without getting their hands so dirty," Sownski said.

While the Monahan Co., which has operated in Arcola since 1922, doesn't produce corn brooms, it makes the components for brooms.

"We make more metal handles here than they make anywhere in the world, about 200,000 a day," company vice president Pat Monahan said.

The Humboldt Broom Co., located on County Road 300N, manufactures brooms, brushes, dust brushes, scouring pads, sponges, cleaning and toilet brushes, broom and mob handles, trash pickers and similar products.

Owner Louis Turner bought Humboldt 25 years ago and moved it to Arcola. The facility now has seven employees.

"We're proud of the quality of fiber in our brooms," Turner said. "A lot of other companies will use a cheaper fiber."