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Dick Confair, president of Confair Bottling Co., Williamsport, is selling his part of the Pepsi generation.
The 57-year-old recently popped the top on an expected agreement with PepsiCo Inc. of Purchase, N.Y., that will turn over all the bottling assets of Confair Bottling to the giant cola conglomerate for an undisclosed sum.
"It was easily the most difficult decision I ever made. Especially from the emotional point of view," Confair said. "You can look at the figures and rationalize that selling is the right thing to do, but then you think of the tradition and the employees, some of whom have been working here for 40 years or more . . ."
The business, which employs 130, was started in Berwick in 1919 by his grandfather Charies F. Confair and moved to Williamsport in 1933. Though it is now operated by Dick the stock is held jointly by himself, his five children and his uncle Zane of Berwick. He said all have approved of the tentative sale.
The "figures" are excellent, Confair said. That's what made now the time to sell.
"The business is at its peak. We're selling 50 million bottles a year. Pepsi-Cola is buying up plants across the country. In five years, the value of this company will be drastically reduced," he said.
Confair Bottling owns the regional bottling rights to both Pepsi-Cola and 7-Up, as well as its own brands and Mugg root beer, its latest product.
The deal includes Confair's Williamsport bottling plant, warehouses in Wellsboro, Milesburg and Berwick, all bottling rights and its share of the Pepsi-Cola bottling coop in Johnstown, which handles canning and bulk purchases of raw materials.
The Pepsi franchise area covers 350,000 people in the North Central Pennsylvania. The 7-Up franchise area extends from Scranton to State College --...