The business was founded by Julius Cloots, and he later operated the business with his daughter and son-in-law, Marian and Donnell Swanson. The Swansons retired and sold the business in 1990 to Dick Black. For the past 21 years Cloots & Swanson has been owned by Project Service.

Paula Walstrom has been with the company for almost 22 years, about 3/4 of them as manager. She said Project Service provides contract labor and janitorial work, so they thought with Cloots & Swanson offering a wide variety of professional cleaning supplies, it would be a good fit.

Cloots & Swanson has been on the ground floor of its present location at 105 E. A St. for about 14 years. They have a total of six employees. Project Service occupies the upper floor.

Cloots & Swanson offers a wide variety of products, including janitorial and cleaning supplies; paper and plastic products; bar and restaurant supplies; party and graduation essentials; commercial restroom dispensers — soap, toilet paper, hand towel; and quality air filters.

CLOOTS & SWANSON occupies the ground floor of this building at 105 E. A St. in Iron Mountain. Project Service, which has owned Cloots & Swanson for 21 years, is on the upper floor. (Marguerite Lanthier/Daily News photo)

Air filters — both for commercial and residential use — are among the best-selling items. “We promo that more than we did before,” she said.

Since 2002, they have more products available. “We carry a lot more than we used to and offer things broken down so people don’t have to buy cases of stuff,” she said. “We don’t want people to think when they come in the store they’re forking out $100 for a whole case.”

The sales representative travels to outlining areas in a 100-mile radius. Some of those businesses don’t have a box store down the block. “They rely on us to bring them these things,” she said.

“We’ve always talked about that — is there any other things we could offer, any other product lines?” she said. They tossed around the idea of offering vacuums, because every business needs a vacuum, but decided against it.

“We would be up for something if it fits in,” she said, adding, “I feel like we have kind of a little niche that we provide for all these businesses. If we don’t have it we can probably get it.”

About six or seven years ago they began selling sassy novelty items for the public, such as socks, towels, hot pads and refrigerator magnets.

They are open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The telephone number is 906-774-2030.