...with Dustin Lagler

BY QUINN CURTIS AND LINDA GARSON

PHOTO BY DONG KIM

Dustin Lagler is the business wiz of the beverage industry. Born and raised in Calgary with a degree in Economics, Lagler always knew his knack for numbers was his greatest gift. “I only happened to go to university because my girlfriend at the time was going to university. So I'd started working and then went to university, and that's when I figured out that I was pretty good at math and pretty good at understanding financial markets, and how things are bought and sold,” he says. After saying no to what he thought was his dream job at a bank to be with his wife, Lagler ended up working at Loblaws. “I was always in marketing and selling, and I've just done it in various capacities. So for half of my tenure, about half of my career, I worked in produce, and I loved it,” says Lagler, adding, “I sold grapes in a different configuration back then. I sold them fresh then, and now I sell them in bottles.” Lagler also has his Canadian Securities License (stockbrokers license) which he also imagined using for banking or investing… and not for selling bottles of wine.

With his expertise in produce and grapes, Lagler eventually transitioned to the beverage side of the industry, running the retail end of all the Loblaws stores in Alberta. With 43 stores across the province, he feels extra passionate about the business and operations side of the industry. “I've done that for the last five or so years, and it's been quite rewarding, but I've developed a passion for both the products and the commercial stuff. And I didn't realize it back then, but I'm a wine guy. I don't make any secret about it,” he smiles.

Being a wine guy, Lagler emphasized that “most people spill more spirits than I drink in a year.” But it's not just the business and commercial side that keeps his passion alive. “I understood it all through commerce and numbers. But

I've grown to love the products and how they're created, how they're marketed, how they're sold, and how people enjoy them,” he says, adding that “I've always maintained a fairly low profile but I've come out of my shell a bit, and become more involved in tasting events and some of the softer side of the industry, because I hope to be involved in it for a long time to come.”

And what bottle of wine is this business wiz saving for that special occasion?

It's a 2009 bottle of Rodney Strong Brothers Ridge cabernet sauvignon. “It’s from California, and I like California. It sounds a little cliché and a little mass market, but to some degree that's me as well,” laughs Lagler. However, the story behind the bottle is anything but cliché.

The bottle is from one of his dear friends who worked with him a number of years ago at his office. “He was kind of my source, my conduit to… you know, what do the customers think of this? What's happening in the industry? What are you seeing at the store level?” he explains, and after Lagler’s friend left the company, they have stayed in touch to this day. “If you flash forward to relatively recently, he is taking a job basically up in northern Canada for a retailer and is divesting all of his belongings, moving up there, and going to live closer to nature,” he says.

And so what did his friend do? He gifted his entire wine collection to Lagler! “It's as much about the gift and the thought behind it as the actual wine,” he says. “All of my favourite memories in this industry are really around people and the experiences. It's been a fairytale ride being able to work in this industry and become more involved in it.”

Lagler thinks it's time to start drinking some of the wines that were left for him by his friend, and plans on opening this special bottle within the next couple of weeks, and we can all drink to that!