Growing up on Kitsap Lake, Carole Dawson was known to her friends as “the pop kid.” With her home always having an ample supply of soda pop — her father owned Bremerton Bottling Co. —her home on the lake was a natural attraction.

These days, Dawson in a way continues to be the grown-up version of that “pop kid.” The president and CEO of the company, which has been in her family for more than six decades, Dawson talks with passion about the many products Bremerton Bottling Co. offers, and about the people behind the scenes.

“It’s pretty simple — it’s just product,” she explains the business as she walks among rows and rows of wracks stacked ceiling-high with beverages ranging from bottled water to energy drinks, teas and sodas. “If you bring 50 people in here with picky tastes, everyone will find something they’ll like.”

But she’s quick to add that while good products are important, the business is built on customer service. “We shine in this market. Our best product is and will always remain, our service,” she says.

The customer service philosophy goes back to the company’s early days. Dawson recalls a trip she took as a child with her father, Phil Aughnay, after a customer had a product mix-up but couldn’t drive back to the store. Aughnay drove around for three hours (back in the pre-GPS days) to find the woman’s home on Bainbridge Island and give her a case of Pepsi.

“His whole life was his plant,” says Dawson, the oldest of his four children. “He always told me the business was a family jewel and said that some day one of the kids would be ‘third generation.’ At the time, of course, I didn’t know what he meant.”

Dawson’s grandfather, Lee Aughnay, bought the company (then a division of Bremerton Ice and Fuel) with a partner in 1944, incorporating two years later. The two original flavors were Pepsi and 7-Up, and the company had four employees. Phil worked summers for his father and in 1955 became the seventh employee. He was president from 1973 until his retirement in 1994, when he continued on as an active chairman of the board.

Like her father, Dawson worked at the business as a child during her summers, often on the bottling line, where she loved to taste the concentrated syrups. But she never thought she would end up running the company one day.

After the sudden death of her step-mother in a car accident, Dawson came to work for her father in 1990 as a way of keeping an eye on him. “I was really worried about him,” she says. “I had no intention of staying but I didn’t tell him.”

Just a few weeks into her office job, Dawson became curious and started going through some old files — and next thing she knew, she fell in love with Bremerton Bottling Co. She was in her 30s at the time. “I didn’t know anything (about the business),” she says. “Talk about a humbling experience.”

Dawson wanted to start out as a merchandiser, the most physically demanding of the jobs. “I had a funny feeling it will pay off some day, and it did.”

CEO and president of the company since 1995, Dawson still keeps merchandiser hours — which is to say, she comes in on many days while it’s still dark out and often is at her office on the weekends. And while she has an excellent team of managers to rely on, she likes to be fully involved (and doesn’t like surprises), so it would be common to see her drop by a store randomly just to see how the products look on the shelf.

“I probably have the easiest job and the hardest. My responsibilities are endless,” she says. “I don’t go home and shut the door.”

Bremerton Bottling Co. closed its in-house production line years ago, and stopped bottling altogether in the ’80s. Dawson says the name remains as a tribute to those roots. But the business has expanded in new directions. Since she took the helm, she’s added not only numerous new beverages (including many independently owned labels) but also several new product lines: snack vending plus coffee, office and other vending services. The building was just recently renovated as well, with more office space and other improvements.

The company, which today employs up to 80 people and offers full benefits, has very little turnover. Dawson says she has “the best management team,” with many of the employees working for the company for 10 to 20 and as many as 30-plus years.

Lawrence Pugh, general manager who started as a warehouseman on the production line about 30 years ago, says Bremerton Bottling is a small, local company that values its employees. “She’s tough but fair, very energetic and open to new ideas,” he says. “In this business, there are not many female owners so she has a different perspective.”

Dawson acknowledges she’s a tough boss, but says her employees constantly exceed her very high expectations. “I know I’m hard, it’s a hard business to learn and I demand it out of employees,” she says. “…We’re a team here. I want to be part of the team — and I am.”

The company is a big supporter of many local groups and organizations, sponsoring events, teams and causes. And recently, Bremerton Bottling underwent a huge endeavor: Converting to a 100-percent recycling facility. Everything from plastic wrap to bottles that come from expired products is recycled. Dawson says recycling and beverage taxations remain the toughest part of being in this industry, and she wanted her company to be a leader in recycling.

Dawson feels blessed that her grandfather and her father built a strong foundation for the company that she dearly loves. And she loves her community and living in this area. “I’ve traveled a lot of places,” she says. “There is no place I’d rather be.”