When he hung up the phone, Jean-Paul Barré, the general manager at the time, had a lot on his mind. He knew that the call from Mr. St-Arnaud could well be the opportunity that the CEO and the Lassonde family had been waiting for – a chance for Lassonde to sell its products in glass containers, not just metal cans. He hurried to talk things over with Willie Lassonde and his son Pierre-Paul. The three men all agreed: Lassonde needed Breuvages Montclair’s equipment.

The small Montreal company was beset by financial problems and its owner, Mr. St-Arnaud, wanted to sell. However, Lassonde had no intention of running a subsidiary in Montreal, so it bought the equipment and moved it to Rougemont, along with the brand name under which Breuvages Montclair marketed its fruit drinks. That brand, which was registered as a trademark only in Canada, was Oasis.

Lassonde could now sell its products in two different types of containers, metal and glass, which meant they could reach new markets. In that era, for instance, local dairies also distributed fruit juices and fruit drinks in glass bottles via door-to-door delivery in various regions of Quebec.

For several years, Lassonde marketed its products under the brand names R and Oasis. But Oasis fruit drinks didn’t really catch on with consumers in the 1970s and Lassonde soon stopped producing them. Fifteen years later, the company gave it another try and this time Oasis appealed to a new generation of clients.

But we’ll have more to say about that story at a later date.

Next column: An unusual production process…