ABOVE: Richie Johnson and his father, Richard, represent the last two generation of owners of Culligan Water in Fairmont. In 2024 the business is celebrating 75 years.

FAIRMONT– For 75 years, Culligan Water has been the local expert on all things water. However, it’s so much more than that as the three generation-owned business has a long and rich history rooted in family and community.

While part of a world-wide brand, Culligan Water was established locally in Fairmont in 1949 by Glen Johnson. It was then passed to his son, Richard Johnson, who passed it to his son, current owner, Richie Johnson, who brought in business parter Dave Cone in 2020.

Richard, 91, said that his father had been a banker in Amboy but unhappy in that career, he bought the Red and White Grocery Store from his wife’s parents.

“E.J. Culligan, the founder of Culligan, talked to grandpa and got him to open a dealership in Fairmont,” Richie said.

The business started out of the Johnson family garage in Amboy before Glen and his wife, Lucille, moved it to State Street in Fairmont in 1950.

“In 1962 they built this building. It was a state-of-the art Culligan facility back in the day,” Richie said. “It still is; we’ve remodeled it a lot.”

Richard, who graduated high school in 1951, joined the army and upon returning home, began working full-time in the family business, which is something he always planned to do.

“Back then, that’s what you did,” Richie said.

By the time Richie was growing up, however, times had changed and he did not see himself taking over the family business one day.

“I worked for Culligan all through high school and then went to Augustana University. Every summer I came home and worked for dad and when I graduated I said I wanted nothing to do with living in Fairmont,” Richie said.

He moved away for a brief time and in early 1992, he returned to Fairmont and started at Culligan Water as a service guy. In 1997, he purchased the business from his father.

Over 75 years, the business has seen many changes such as the emergence of computers, which came into the office in 1993. Changes in operations have also been many. Richie noted that 20 years ago, bottled water wasn’t even a common thing.

“It took off in the 90s. Coolers came out and we grew big time in bottled water,” Richie said.

During that time they purchased a big bottle truck and now he said reverse osmosis drinking systems have been big over the last decade.

“Our biggest thing is softening water– that’s what Culligan has been known for for 80 years, is softening water. We take hard water, which we have a lot of around here, and we make it soft in all of our communities. We also have iron filters that take out the iron,” Richie said.

Just as the business has evolved in terms of services, it’s also grown its footprint. Culligan Water of Southern Minnesota now owns 10 dealerships.

“In 2020 we bought Mankato, Madelia, Redwood Falls, Jackson and a bottling plant,” Johnson said.

There’s really three businesses in one. Richie Water covers Fairmont, Jackson and Windom and Cone owns Mankato, Madelia and Sleepy Eye. Together they own Redwood Falls, Marshall, Slayton and Luvrne, on the western side of the state.

“We’ve gone from six employees to 52 employees right now across all of our stores,” Richie said.

The Fairmont office includes 10 employees, many of which have been with the company for quite a few years and who Richie said help the operations run smoothly.

In terms of its business philosophy, Richie said that years ago his father started the motto, “satisfied customers is what it’s all about,” and that they still stand by it to this day.

“Without our customers being happy with our product and our service, we have no business. We really strive on our service part of it. You might have a business but if you don’t have a good service department, delivery and customer service staff… we strive to make it a culture of taking care of our customers,” Richie said.

That mentality applies to caring about more than just customers, but about the whole community. Culligan has long been a generous donor to many events and organizations throughout the community. In fact, it’s rare to attend an event that has’t had water donated by Culligan.

“It’s a way to give bak to our community. Our community has been good to us and we love to see our water at all of our events,” Richie said, adding that that applies to all of the communities Culligan Water of Southern Minnesota serves.

As for what’s next, Richie said that water is going into high efficiency as there’s a bigger push now more than ever to go green. He said that water softeners don’t use as much salt in water anymore and that Culligan is on the cutting edge of coming up with great technology.

“I love being with a company that’s always thinking forward,” he said.

Whether or not there’s a fourth generation remains to be determined as one of Richie’s two sons, Jaxon, may have an interest in taking it on.

“He’s in college right now… and I tell him, ‘go do your dream and live your life and if you want to come back, come back and if not, then that’s okay.'”

He helps in the summer months and Richie’s wife, Stephanie, has also played a huge role in the success of the business over the years.

Looking back over 75 years, Richard said that he thinks his father would be impressed to see it still going strong today.

“He’d be amazed by the changes and wouldn’t be able to fathom from what he saw to what it is now,” Richie said.

To acknowledge 75 years of business, Culligan will be hosting a celebration party on Friday, June 7 at its business, 1030 North State Street. It will consist of a day-long salt sale with coffee and donuts provided. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. KFMC will be on site for a live giveaway of a golf cart. Food trucks will also be on site from early afternoon through the evening and from 4 to 7 p.m. local musician Kelly Artz will be performing there. There will also be a cash bar in the evening.

“We thought we might as well enjoy it and go all out,” Richie said.

“It’s important to keep the people aware of what we’ve done and what we are,” Richard said of the celebration.

“You see a lot of small businesses fade away and it’s nice to see one that’s still here and thriving and in the family,” Richie added.