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The 58-year-old manages the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in Winona, keeping alive the 102-year Kuhlmann family tradition.
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Le Roy Telstad, left, bottling company manager, talks with Bruce Streng as he fills 5-gallon premix canisters with rootbeer from the carbonator and blender machine Tuesday at the Coca-Cola Bottling Company in Winona. Telstad does a number of jobs as manager, including walking through the plant each day to make sure everything is running smoothly.
(Photo by Melissa Carlo/Winona Daily News)
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The bottling company distributes Coca-Cola and related products to four counties in a 35-mile radius, but is also the last in the country to fill 6 ½-ounce glass bottles. Telstad settles accounts, runs deliveries, fixes bottling equipment, makes soda and helps with marketing.
His job requires multi-tasking, reputation and muscle.
We’re very unusual here in the Coke business. There used to be 2,700 bottlers across the country and now there are 90. Eventually, they all sold out to a larger bottler. In the state, there are six bottlers or distributors left. We’re really one of the only ones left really doing the bottling.
We do … wholesale, but some retail. People come from all over the country to get the bottles.
My job would probably be five different divisions in a bigger bottling company — I do quality control, sales, marketing, production and distribution. Because of our size, we have to do that.
I was the bookkeeper yesterday. I answered phones and made sales. I loaded semis and unloaded semis. I checked the perimeter of the plant for anything out of the ordinary and checking the equipment. I was on a conference call to Florida with marketing folks.
I’m sweeping the floor, fixing a truck, putting out fires. The day is broken up quite a lot. I’m making sure safety and quality regulations are met and overseeing employees.
I think the biggest thing I do is coordinate all the efforts of our team — all the people and the products.
We moved 730,000 cases of products in 2007 and serviced 85,000 to 90,000 people. It seems small until you start adding it up… We move three to five semi-loads of product per week.
We have 10 regular employees, three part-time employees, an office manager and one is our sales development manager and there are three family members involved.
My father-in-law is 82 and comes in every day … He asked me to go into the business shortly after I married his daughter. I’ve been here since 1983. Clinton L. Kuhlmann’s father is Clinton A. Kuhlmann. 1935 is when they built this building and over time the family absorbed the business, including (Kuhlmann’s daughter) Cathi Fisher.
Basically, we’re a hydration plant.
The bottling process is taking city water and treating it to balance the alkalinity. We test it several different ways throughout the year — annually, monthly, weekly and daily.
We eliminate fluoride and chlorine and balance the alkalinity to mix it with the syrup. There are three filter stages to it — one is a sand/gravel filter, a carbon purifier and the third is a polishing filter.
To get carbonation into water, you need to have a combination of pressure, temperature and contact time.
We mix exactly 5½ parts of water to one-part syrup.
There’s still an extract of the cocoa plant (in the syrup), but no one really knows the formula. You could chemically figure it out, but there’s probably a plant from Bolivia and all kinds of things that go in it.
Coke is coke, so there’s stability and history. But it’s an extremely competitive marketplace. If your product doesn’t look good on the shelf, there’s always Pepsi-Cola, Snapple, Mountain Dew and a whole myriad of products.
It’s very easy to lose a reputation and it’s not easy at all to regain it … If a pop machine’s lights don’t work, it just doesn’t work … If a 12-pack of cans has a tear on it even though the product inside is just fine, it doesn’t work. That’s what it takes when you’re wearing a uniform that portrays this image.
You really need to be physically fit because it’s physically demanding. Other than that it’s being good with numbers.
Mechanical things don’t frighten me. They intrigue me … I need to know how the machines work because I purchase them and how the coin machines work because I purchase them.
For me, I start at 7 and leave at 5-5:30 weekdays. I’m here on weekends. So, I’m kind of a workaholic.
As far as wages, I’m not sure I could really answer that. I’m not sure what I even make.
This story is part of a weekly series called “On the Job,” in which area residents talk about their careers. Contact reporter Amber Dulek at (507) 453-3513 or amber.dulek@lee.net.
