John Olson, President and CEO

John Olson’s story is a classic American tale, from a not-so-perfect childhood, to owning one of the most successful businesses in the country. With a lot of hard work and exceptional management skills, and probably a bit of luck along the way, Olson grew Blue Rock Products from a single building facility in Sidney, to a multi-location business also serving Williston, Plentywood, Glasgow, Miles City and the surrounding areas.

Olson was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Born in 1939 in Great Falls, his single mother could not afford to take care of him, so he spent 5 ½ years in an orphanage. “They treated me well,” he said. His most vivid memory of that time is of the day World War II ended. The dining area of the orphanage featured long tables with benches. The rule was that you couldn’t leave until your plate was clean. Six year old John had 2 asparagus spears on his plate. He did not, and still doesn’t, like asparagus. “The sisters were all gathered around the radio and all of a sudden they were whooping and hollering “The War Is Over”. One sister came over to me and asked what I was still doing at the table. She said that it was a beautiful day and I should be outside playing. I ran. And I didn’t have to eat that asparagus.”

When Olson was in the third grade, things got better and he was able to go home and live with his Mom. He graduated from Great Falls High School and then joined the Marine Corps. After the service, he attended the University of Montana and became a lifelong Grizzly.

As a child of only 9 or 10, Olson started spending summers in Fairview at his uncle C.O. Johnson’s bottling plant. Back then, the Chase family of Fairview would carve ice out of the Yellowstone River in the winter and store it for summer use. In the back of the bottling plant there was a pit where the ice was kept, covered with sawdust. One of little John’s jobs was to go into that pit and chop up ice. He would use a small push cart, load it with ice, and then put a chunk on each beer barrel. He also sorted bottles and did other chores as needed.

Olson graduated from U of M with a teaching degree. His first, and only, teaching job was in Hysham. As a young single teacher, he not only taught history and political science, but was also the assistant coach for football and basketball, created two school plays per year and was in charge of the school newspaper. After the first year, he knew that teaching was not what he wanted to do. He stayed one more year and then resigned.

He was still spending the summers in Fairview and enjoyed the business. At the end of that summer, he had no teaching job, and his uncle Brub Johnson didn’t have enough work to keep him on with Blue Rock. Pepsi Cola called. There was a bottler in Casper, WY who needed a temporary manager while they went on vacation to Europe. Would John take the job?

He said he had no experience but was willing to try. After a 48 hour management crash course, the family boarded the plane for Europe. One month extended to three, with the owner calling at the end of each month checking up on the business and asking if he could stay another month. Upon the owner’s return, Olson was asked to stay as sales manager. He turned down the offer, knowing that his philosophy and business ideas were far different than that of the owner.

Olson went to Denver to apply with Pepsi Cola, but they had nothing so he headed home to Great Falls. He got a call from Jeff Powell with Pepsi, who asked to meet him at the airport the next day for an interview. When they met, Powell asked if he was the fat little fellow who used to sort bottles in Fairview. Olson said he was and Powell hired him on the spot to be a salesman in the Franchise Development Group. Olson covered eleven western states, including Alaska and Hawaii. He didn’t make it to Hawaii, but he introduced Diet Pepsi in Alaska in February – a sign of a true salesman. Then he was off to New York as part of a new Sales Development department, covering 3 areas including the military, grocery and mobile markets.

In April of 1965, Olson’s uncle C.O. “Brub” Johnson, who had taken over Blue Rock from his father, called Olson to ask if he wanted the Sidney franchise. After 33 years in the business, Johnson needed to back out. Olson came to Sidney and took over and one year later bought the business.

Olson has a knack of surrounding himself with great people. Immediately after he purchased Blue Rock he married Marilyn. On April 12, 1966, they applied for their marriage license in the morning and he bought Blue Rock that afternoon. Five days later, he and Marilyn were married by her dad, O.C. Johnson, who was a Lutheran pastor. Olson has also always believed in his product. At the rehearsal, when Johnson asked if he would ‘take this woman…’ Olson replied yes – if he would switch to Pepsi. John and Marilyn had met on a blind date on December 7, 1965. By January 4, 1966 they were engaged and married in April. “The only reason we had to wait for the wedding was that Marilyn’s dad couldn’t marry us before Easter,” Olson said. Marilyn was in Sidney as part of a pilot study looking at merging the County Health Department with the Public Health Department. She worked closely with Mary Alice Rehbein. After that, she trained retired nurses to get them back in the profession. “She’s a smart lady,” Olson said proudly.

F.W. Murphy from Bismarck started the bottling plant in Fairview as well as Glendive and Williston. The bottling plant did not do well and was sold several times until J.C.Johnson bought it in 1918 and made it a success. They bottled sodas at the time as well as beer. During prohibition, Johnson and Mr. Creighton of Williston had a still in Bainville where they made and bottled illegal hooch to sell, thereby thriving until prohibition was lifted. Johnson’s granddaughter was doing research on Blue Rock and wanted artifacts from the business. Olson met her in San Diego and learned that J.C. had been fined $50,000 by the IRS, assumably for not reporting the income from his bootlegging operation. Olson has a bottle of that hooch, given to him by Glade Yoder not long before he died.

The Fairview operation was located in the lot across the alley behind the Hotel Albert. Johnson moved the business to Sidney in 1959 to the corner of 2nd St. and 3rd Ave. When Olson bought the business, the old bottling plant building in Fairview still existed. It was decrepit and had become a place for the neighborhood boys to visit. It all had to be cleaned out and demolished. Lance Averett loaded and hauled all the bottles and debris to the landfill by the pickup load. “One of my biggest mistakes was taking a whole railroad car of 12 oz. Pepsi bottles to the landfill,” Olson said. Both the monetary and nostalgia value of those bottles would be huge now. Olson especially appreciates the vintage beverage memorablia. His museum at Blue Rock rivals any in the nation.

When Olson purchased the business in 1966, there were just five fulltime employees: Jo Maltese, Lois McClusky, Eugene Gagner, Skee Berndt and DeeAnn Messmer. Olson did a lot of route sales, loading and unloading of trucks and whatever was necessary to keep his company going. There were no forklifts back then. Olson remembers he and Averett, in a snowstorm on June 6, unloading a beer semi, 2200 cases, one at a time. It took 5 ½ hours. Today it takes 17 minutes with no manual labor involved. He also remembers Skee Berndt loading a 1962 Chevy route truck three high on the roof to make a run to Circle. The empties were always thrown on the roof to come home. One of the biggest changes in the business is that modern equipment makes everything much easier. The trucks are better these days but one disadvantage is that Blue Rock now has to go to Billings to purchase and repair trucks. “We used to be able to buy locally. It was good to be able to deal with your neighbors,” Olson lamented.

Blue Rock Distributing has won the President’s Award from Miller Coors, a prestigious award in the beer business. In 2007, they were named as the Business of the Year by the Montana Ambassadors. For the past 3 years, Blue Rock Products has been the Top Pepsi-Cola plant in the nation for sales increases as percentage of sales.

Blue Rock obtained the Pepsi franchise in 1939. Olson was very active in the National Pepsi Cola Bottling Association for many years, including serving as chair from 1978 until early 1980. At that time independent bottlers made up 85% of the business in the U.S. Now that number is reversed. Most of the independent bottlers are in the Rocky Mountain Region and part of the reason they were able to survive and thrive was the creation in 1969 of the Admiral Beverage Company. The company was formed as a way for the small bottlers to control the items necessary to make their product. “We created one heck of a company,” Olson said. ”It kept us alive. It gave us the buying power and ensured consistency in production, security and source of cans. None of us were large enough to do our own canning facility. We had to pool our resources to survive.” The company has bottling facilities in Worland, WY and Ogden, UT. They have 40 locations throughout the Rocky Mountain area and recently added Pepsi Bottling for Salt Lake and a beer distributor for the entire state of New Mexico.

Olson has been chairman of Admiral since its inception, which as he says, has to be a record in corporate history. As the original members age, Olson has invited the sons and daughters, including his own, into the board room. “It makes the transition a lot smoother when a director passes on,” he said.

Olson believes in giving back to the community. He served on the MDU Resources board for almost 25 years, was on the Blue Cross/Blue Shield board for 10 years and was chairman of the Montana Bottlers Association for several years. He was the first of 5 Sidney Chamber of Commerce presidents to come out of Blue Rock, serving in 1971, when he hired Cal Oraw as executive director. Olson was also a co-founder of the Foundation for Community Care.

Olson says he has surrounded himself with smart, hard working people. He is proud of his employees and what they have accomplished in the community as well. “Lance Averett has been active in Demolay for many years and was voted Advisor of the Year twice in the 1990s. He’s also active with the golf club and served on the hospital board for 6 years. Lance has been a mentor for my children and has kept me on the straight and narrow. I have been a beneficiary of Lance’s experience.” Another employee Olson talked about was Tim Feeley who retired after 38 years with Blue Rock. “I’ve had good top management. We’ve benefited from each other and stayed together.”

Since Olson’s daughter Karen and his son Randy have joined the family business, continuation of the firm seems assured going forward. Even Karen’s son Luke is now working at the plant.