18 Beverage Dynamics • November/December 2014
www.beveragedynamics.com
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RETAIL PROFILE
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his son at the helm. What has it been like working without his father
by his side?
"It's strange not seeing him every day, though I still see him all
the time outside of work," Dinsmore admits. "One of the greatest
honors of my life has been the opportunity to work alongside my
father for so long. We were able to make
up for so much time that was lost when I
was younger and he was working in the
corporate world, when I didn't get to see
him as much."
Mat's mother is now a partner in
the business as well, but Mat is the one
assuming the patriarch role at work: he
enlists in the help of his seven-year-old
daughter, Olivia, to assist him at the
store. "She drives a hard bargain, charg-
ing Wilbur's $6 per Sunday worked," he
reports jokingly.
So what's next for Wilbur's? Per Dins-
more, there aren't any big company changes looming on the horizon.
His business philosophy has always been to constantly maintain and
improve things as needed, by keeping the space clean and always
moving to the next painting or repair project on the list.
"That way you're never hit with a necessary million-dollar over-
load later down the road," he explains.
Instead of being focused on making any big changes to his busi-
ness, Dinsmore is more interested in how the evolving landscape
of the state of Colorado will ultimately affect the liquor industry
in general. A member of the Wine and Spirits Guild of America,
Dinsmore also sits on the American Beverage Licensees board.
At all of his association meetings, Dins-
more says that the main focus is on
one topic: that in January 2014, Colo-
rado became one of the fi rst states in
the nation to legalize the retail sale of
recreational marijuana. What does that
have to do with the beverage alcohol
industry? Quite a lot.
"Alcohol now has competition for
basically the fi rst time ever," Dinsmore
says. "People may be changing the way
they choose to spend their extra money.
Marijuana has been around for a long
time, but is was illegal and taboo. Now
it isn't illegal, and it's readily accessible."
Dinsmore says that Colorado will need to wait and see how the
legalization of recreational marijuana ultimately affects the liquor
industry. In the meantime, he's focusing on what he does best: con-
tinuing to make Wilbur's the premiere beverage destination for the
residents of Fort Collins.
BD
On the liquor side, Wilbur's caters to a wide variety of products and price ranges, from 99-cent shooters to $5,000 bottles of Cognac.
Vodka continues to be
the category leader, but
American whiskey and
Bourbon continue to rise in
sales over the past several
years, thanks in part to the
Mad Men-inspired classic
cocktail craze.
