HOW IT ALL STARTED

Get to know the story of how a determined salesman, an ad guy, and a warehouse full of product created the #1 selling metal cleaner and the iconic CLR brand.

THE 1940’s

In 1949 Manny Gutterman founded Manny Gutterman & Associates, Inc. as a national sales representative organization. This new company was dedicated to selling all types of proprietary products to chain drug, variety, hardware and department stores and also established an ethical and reliable channel for "close-out" merchandise.

 

The hair wiz
commercial

The Hair Wiz was a featured product from one of the variety chains in the 40’s.

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THE 1960’s

A friend in advertising asked Manny to sell a warehouse full of cleaning product in barter from a bankrupt client. Of course he accepted the challenge and Jelmar, LLC. was born. Manny – along with sons Steven and Arthur – reformulated and repackaged the abandoned product and sold it as Tarn-X® Tarnish Remover.

 

The tarn-x®
commercial

The original Tarn-X as seen on tv commercial showed people how to polish silver.

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THE 1980’s

Manny, Arthur and Steven were meeting with business partner Al Eicoff to develop a product that could serve as a complement to Tarn-X. A powerful lime and rust remover was developed. And after some struggles to find a name for the product, Calcium, Lime & Rust Remover was born.

 

The first clr
commercial

The first Calcium, Lime, & Rust commercial featured in the 1980’s.

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THE 2000’S & BEYOND

In 2007, Alison Gutterman continues the family legacy and became the president of Jelmar.  Jelmar developed and grew CLR into the company’s second nationally-recognized cleaning brand. Jelmar continued to develop new and innovative products, including Bath & Kitchen Cleaner, Power Plumber, Mold & Mildew & More.

 

The 2020 clr
BRAND REFRESH

In 2020, CLR debuted a new sleek, modern and bright packaging design. This brand redesign and change in pronunciation from "CLR" to "CLeaR" reinforced the brand's evolution beyond much more than it's classic Calcium, Lime & Rust Remover. Several products were also renamed to reflect the breadth of the product line.