Recently, the Government of Ontario introduced new procurement requirements under the Buy Ontario Act (Public Sector Procurement), 2025, including the Buy Ontario Procurement Directive and the Municipal Buy Ontario Procurement Directive. OECM has confirmed that all current agreements remain compliant and can continue to be used without disruption, with additional requirements applying only in specific cases such as fleet vehicles and capital infrastructure.
As part of OECM’s ongoing work to support customers under these directives, four Ontario-based manufacturers with products available through OECM’s Custodial and Janitorial Supplies, Equipment, and Related Services agreement invited OECM to visit their facilities and learn more about their operations.
This four-part series highlights those visits with Charlotte Products, Diversey, Dustbane Products, and M2 Professional Cleaning Products, and explores how they are supporting customer needs through local manufacturing, sustainability, and operational expertise.
This article highlights Diversey and the company’s approach to Ontario manufacturing, innovation in cleaning technologies, sustainability-focused solutions, and operational support for public sector organizations through OECM’s custodial agreement.
Charlotte products are available through Swish Maintenance Ltd. on OECM’s Custodial and Janitorial Supplies, Equipment, and Related Services agreement.
Charlotte Products, the sister company of Swish Maintenance, welcomed OECM to their joint Peterborough manufacturing and distribution facility for a closer look at local production, logistics, and customer support. The visit took place at 2060 Fisher Drive and included Jason Moorehead, CEO, Charlotte Products; Susan Ambler, Director of Value Chain, Swish Maintenance Limited; Vince Poletta, General Manager; and Sean O’Hearn, VP, Sales & Marketing, North America.
The visit highlighted a closely connected operating model: Charlotte serves as the manufacturing arm, formulating, developing, testing, and producing cleaning chemicals, disinfectants, floor care solutions, and environmentally responsible products in Peterborough, Ontario, while Swish supports customers through logistics, service, training, and implementation. That connection shows how local production and customer support can work hand in hand to deliver Canadian-made custodial and janitorial solutions at scale.
Ontario manufacturing at the centre
A strong starting point for the visit was Charlotte’s role as the manufacturing arm of the operation. Charlotte formulates, develops, tests, and manufactures a range of cleaning chemicals, disinfectants, floor care solutions, and environmentally responsible products in Ontario. In addition to manufacturing, the company maintains local research and development, quality assurance, and regulatory capabilities, allowing it to respond quickly to evolving customer and market needs. That manufacturing presence is central to the Buy Ontario relevance of the visit.
Walking through the production areas made that role tangible. OECM saw the H1 and H2 mixing tanks, which support daily output of approximately 25,000 to 30,000 litres, as well as the Hazloc (hazardous location) clean room introduced during COVID-19 That clean room showed how the company adapted quickly to urgent demand during COVID-19, producing hand sanitizer using locally sourced materials within a 20-kilometre radius. The experience demonstrated how local sourcing and manufacturing capabilities can help organizations respond quickly during periods of supply chain disruption.
Innovation, testing, and quality control under one roof
The tour also highlighted Charlotte’s focus on innovation and continuous improvement. In the lab spaces, teams are working to enhance product performance, including efforts to reduce disinfectant dwell times while maintaining efficacy. A dedicated quality lab supports traceability, with each batch tied to numbered labels for testing and accountability.
For OECM customers, this part of the visit reinforced that local manufacturing is not only about production capacity. It is also about in-house formulation, product development, testing, and quality assurance. Those capabilities matter when customers are looking for consistency, accountability, and products that continue to evolve with operational needs.
A family business with a Canadian focus
The visit also showed how closely the broader business is tied to family ownership. Swish is a third-generation company, originally founded by Walter, Susan Ambler’s grandfather, whose legacy still shapes the organization today. Her brother, Tim, is Swish’s CEO.
Founded in 1956, Swish has grown into a national operation serving approximately 15,000 customers across Canada, with 13 locations nationwide. Despite that scale, Charlotte and Swish remain Canadian family-owned businesses, with investment, employment, and operational decisions continuing to be made in Canada. The organization has also maintained a strong domestic focus, manufacturing in Ontario and sourcing more than 85% of Charlotte’s raw materials from Canadian suppliers. Charlotte is certified Ontario Made through Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) in partnership with the Government of Ontario, helping reinforce the company’s commitment to local manufacturing, supply chain resilience, and Canadian-made solutions.
“We’ve seen too many business conglomerates taking over small family-owned businesses. We are looking to keep money in the Canadian economy.”
– Susan Ambler, Director of Value Chain, Swish Maintenance Limited
That Canadian focus is especially relevant in the context of Bill 72. It supports the broader objective of strengthening local production, local value creation, and visibility for Ontario-made and Canadian-made solutions already available through OECM’s agreements. To help customers more easily find Canadian-made options, Swish also offers a dedicated Canadian-made cleaning solutions page.
Swish’s role in service, distribution, and implementation
While Charlotte anchored the manufacturing side of the visit, Swish’s role was equally visible in service delivery, logistics, and implementation. As a Canadian distributor and service provider, Swish supports customers with custodial and facility supplies, training, implementation support, and program management.
The warehouse and distribution areas showed how inventory, labelling, and logistics are managed, including capabilities that allow customers to track deliveries in real time. The team also highlighted Hey, Walter™, a mobile assistant named after founder Walter, which uses AI to guide frontline cleaning teams, support more standardized processes, and help reinforce compliance. Trained on operational SOPs, manuals, and product information, the tool can also provide real-time guidance in more than 140 languages to support diverse frontline teams.
This part of the visit underscored that the value of the Charlotte-Swish model is not only in what is made in Peterborough, but also in how those products are delivered, implemented, and supported in practice.Together, Charlotte’s Ontario-based manufacturing capabilities and Swish’s Canadian service, training, logistics, and implementation network provide customers with support throughout the product lifecycle.
Manufacturing and service working together
Charlotte’s in-house formulation and research and development capabilities support a wide range of cleaning programs, while Swish helps ensure those products are delivered and implemented effectively for customers through OECM’s custodial and janitorial supplies and equipment agreement.
That integrated structure is especially meaningful because it brings together local production, logistics, training, and service in one connected model. Rather than treating manufacturing and distribution as separate conversations, the visit showed how the two functions support each other.
A wider local manufacturing ecosystem
As part of the day, OECM also toured Merit Precision and learned about CAM Manufacturing, a joint venture between Charlotte and Merit established to manufacture bottles and containers used in Charlotte’s product lines.
The investment was driven in part by lessons learned during COVID-19 and broader supply chain disruptions, when access to packaging became a challenge across North America. By bringing bottle manufacturing closer to home, Charlotte strengthened its supply chain while increasing the amount of Ontario-made content within its products.
This portion of the visit highlighted that local manufacturing extends beyond the cleaning solutions themselves. The containers and packaging that support Charlotte’s products are also manufactured locally, helping keep more economic activity, jobs, and manufacturing expertise within Ontario.
For OECM customers, it demonstrated how Ontario-made value can be created across an entire supply chain, from raw materials and packaging through to manufacturing, distribution, and customer support.
A long-standing relationship with OECM since 2010
Swish has been an OECM supplier partner since 2010. That long-standing relationship means customers are working with an experienced partner serving broader public sector custodial and janitorial needs through OECM’s agreement.
Explore Charlotte and Swish products through OECM’s agreement
Customers looking to strengthen custodial programs with Ontario-made and Canadian-made solutions can explore Charlotte’s cleaning chemicals, disinfectants, floor care solutions, and environmentally responsible products at charlotteproducts.com, along with Swish’s broader custodial and facility supply offerings at swish.ca. Swish’s Canadian-made cleaning solutions page at swish.ca/canadian-made-cleaning-solutions can also help identify Canadian-made options.
Once ready to move forward, customers can sign a Customer-Supplier Agreement (CSA) with Swish Maintenance and start purchasing.
