Oskaloosa: Vision Accomplished (October 1961)

From Pepsi Cola World Magazine

When planning a new home for his product, any Bottler is tantalized for months by a twofold vision: the Perfect Plant; the Perfect Opening Day.
On September 8 (1961), in Oskaloosa, Iowa, man and nature conspired to provide just such a moment for Mr. And Mrs. Arnold Muhl and son John during the official opening of their new Pepsi-Cola operation.
The plant which their fellow Pepsi Bottlers from Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri, Pepsi-Cola Company officials, and a crowd of good friends had come many miles to see was a specious brick and concrete structure situated on a five-acre park-like tract specifically designed to allow later expansion.
For Oskaloosa Pepsi's new home had its true beginning more than 40 years ago when former Oskaloosa railroad employee Harry Morgan (father of Mrs. Arnold Muhl) decided to go into business for himself. In 1918, he purchased a small bottling plant in downtown Oskaloosa, began bottling a variety of flavors with primitive hand-operated machinery, delivered his wares with a single horse-drawn truck. In 1922, present Oskaloosa Pepsi President Arnold Muhl joined his father-in-law's tiny Mahaska Bottling Company (so named for a local Indian chief of considerable repute); then, in the early 1930's, Bottlers Morgan and Muhl decided that they were ready to take on a nationally advertised, rapidly-growing soft-drink. That they chose Pepsi-Cola made, says Mr. Muhl, "all the difference."
With the acquisition of a 10-county franchise area in rich, progressive southwestern Iowa, Oskaloosa Pepsi soon grew by leaps and bounds, now serves a quarter of a million Iowans (Oskaloosa pop. 12,000) from the home plant and five additional warehouses. Says John Muhl, who joined his father in the Pepsi business shortly after his grandfather's death in 1947, "We not only wanted this new plant; we had to have it. We were busting at the seams!"
There will be no bursting at the seams in Oskaloosa Pepsi's new plant for many years to come. Wisely and spaciously planned by the Bottlers Muhl, with the co-operation and advise of Pepsi-Cola Company Vice President Neil Morrison and his staff, its features, among other advantages:

Air-conditioned, walnut-panelled reception areas and offices.
A big sales meeting room with attached, completely equipped modern kitchen.
A complete line of new automatic bottling equipment which includes a 40-spout line, caser, de-caser, case cleaner, bottle crusher, palletizer-depalleter, two 4500-gallon liquid sugar storage tanks, and an electric inspection unit.
Initial installation of premix and postmix facilities.
Complete change of controlled air every three minutes.
Hydraulic lift doors at either end of the loading room.
Separate repair, paint, and vendor storage areas.

The Muhl's Opening Day was as nearly perfect as a day can be: jewel-like, cloudless, blessed with a faint breeze which stirred flags on a nearby golf course, rustled the thousands of acres of Iowa corn which lap round Oskaloosa like a gentle ocean. For their celebration on this perfect day the Muhls - with a modesty their old friends describe as typical - eschewed formal Plant Opening fanfare (i.e., ribbon-cutting, brass bands, balloons, rockets, speeches); instead, personally greeted each one of a day-long flow of friends (beginning, at 8:30 A.M. with early birds Merl Holloway of Cedar Rapids; Mr. And Mrs. Gene Waldron, St. Joseph, Mo.). In the afternoon, the Bottlers Muhl slipped away from their guests long enough to participate in a simple, moving ceremony in Arnold Muhl's office where, in the presence of Pepsi-Cola Company Western Division Vice President John Bate, Central Division Vice President Ray Mock, and Vice presidents Marc Lefebvre and Jack Repko (who had flown from New York in the Company plane especially for the occasion), Regional Manager Matt Campanaro presented them with Pepsi-Cola Company's New Plant Plaque.

Among other Pepsimen who made invaluable contributions to the success of Oskaloosa's Pepsi Opening celebration: Oskaloosa Route Managers Ronnie Pettit and Lowell Cooper; Central Division Advertising Manager Ken Brown and Assistant Don Kingsley; Engineers John Derksen and Jim O'Connor; Product Control Lab technicians Al Gutknecht and Dick Jennings; and Marketing Coordinator Bill Lord.

Later that evening, at Oskaloosa's Country Club, the Muhls extended their hospitality to more than 800 guests at a cocktail-lawn party, buffet dinner-dance which few folks in their town will ever forget.
Nor will the Muhls themselves be likely to forget the warm, spontaneous response made by their fellow citizens to the dedication of their new Pepsi-Cola home. High lights of "Pepsi Day," as it was unanimously acclaimed by Oskaloosans:

Fifty-seven store windows in downtown Oskaloosa featured Pepsi decals, crowns, P-O-P materials, cases, cartons, bottles, Miss America streamers, coolers, throughout the celebration period. From shoe stores to appliance outlets, from car showrooms to jewelers to florists, one and all, merchants relinquished valuable display space, built imaginative Pepsi exhibits, entered happily into a Pepsi window display contest organized by the Chamber of Commerce. First place winner: the Chevrolet showroom, which turned its entire floor space into a Pepsi showcase, tied-in one of its 1962 station wagons with Pepsi-Cola's "outdoor living" theme by adding picnic coolers, Pepsi-crowned beach umbrellas, an outdoor grill, and so on, to the established decorative materials.
A 12-page special section of the September 7 edition of the Oskaloosa Daily Herald contained nothing but stories, photographs, and congratulatory ads featuring Pepsi-Cola.
Floral tributes (from virtually every merchant and many individuals in Oskaloosa) of such magnificence and ingenuity that even Pepsi Plant Opening veterans viewed them with amazement. So many flowers arrived at the plant, in fact, that the fragrant tide soon engulfed the reception room and office, spilled out into the farthest reaches of the building where one basket of autumnal beauty finally washed up on a tool bench in the repair shop, remained there to glow among hammers wrenches, and saws.
Dealer Day and Public Opening on September 9, when nearly 18,000 Iowans streamed into the new Oskaloosa plant, consumed over 22,000 hot dogs and 25,000 Pepsis, got door prizes of Pepsi-identified tumblers, picnic coolers, and salt-and-pepper shakers.
Pictures of Oskaloosa plant on following pages.
Mountain Dew name bottles from the Oskaloosa plant.
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