Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
LIME ROCK SPRINGS COMPANY
LIME ROCK SPRINGS COMPANY. In 1916 L. B. Gantz established the Gantz Bottling Works. He sold the company in 1917 to his son John J. GANTZ, Sr. In 1917 the company was renamed Lime Rock Springs for the natural springs on which the bottling facility had been constructed. The company was listed in the 1922 telephone directory as being located at the race track. (1)
The company bottled a full line of flavored soft drinks under its own label until 1936 when John J. Gantz, Sr. obtained the franchise rights to Pepsi-Cola, a little known brand. (2) The name became Lime Rock Springs Co. | Pepsi Dubuque. Bottling carbonated beverages in the early days was dangerous. A pump was used by operators to fill the bottles and wire stopper to cap them. Workers wore masks to guard their faces against bottle explosions. (3)
The Company ceased producing at the Dubuque location and sourced its products from Wis-Pak, Inc.,a multi-plant production cooperative servicing the Company and thirty-one other independent Pepsi-Cola Bottlers within the Midwest. (4)
Lime Rock Springs Co. is the local distributor of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Mt Dew, and other PepsiCo brand soft drinks as well as Lipton teas, Aquafina waters, Klarbrunn still and sparkling waters, Gatorade, Rockstar energy drinks, Starbucks bottled beverages, etc. The company operates out of one warehouse located in Dubuque, Iowa servicing an area including Clayton, Dubuque, and Jackson counties in Iowa, Jo Daviess county in Illinois, and Grant, Lafayette, and a portion of Iowa county in Wisconsin. In 2019 the company employed approximately 70 people and had a delivery and service fleet of roughly thirty vehicles. (5)
The Company is independently owned and operated, and is the exclusive franchisee of PepsiCo within its area of operations. It has been operated by the Gantz family for four generations. In 2019 the Lime Rock Springs did business and Pepsi Dubuque Vendor's Unlimited, and Roasting Solutions. (6)
---
Source:
1. Obituaries, John J. Gantz, Jr. Telegraph Herald, July 28, 2005
2. Ibid.
3. "Pepsi-Cola's New Plant Officially Opens," Telegraph-Herald, October 12, 1969, p. 17
4. "Lime Rock Springs Company," Access Dubuque, Online: https://jobs.accessdubuque.com/companies.cfm?companyid=36599
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.