So what can customers expect from Doug Wagner’s so called “management” of the new Glacier Sun Winery (formally Going to the Sun Winery) in the Kalispell, MT? While one cannot predict the future, looking at the past may be the best indicator. As discussed in previous posts to this blog, Doug has owned and has provided his guidance to several businesses including Lake Missoula Cellars, ClearWeather Wines, The Cellars, and Rock Creek Winery, all which are no longer in business. This doesn’t count Doug’s so far failed attempt to start a new winery called Prodigy Wines. Doug’s personality and lack of business skills were the primary cause of the failures. So, here is the forecast for the next year at the Glacier Sun Winery:
1) Doug is not willing to take responsibility. If anything goes wrong, or if Doug makes a bad decision, he will blame everyone other than himself. For example, he was quick to blame the demise of his businesses on the economy when in fact, Doug and his wife Ramona drove their customers away. Constantly raising prices, a dirty facility, saying inappropriate things, irritating customers and poor quality of wine caused the customers to not return. Other wineries in the area, including Lolo Peak Winery, Hidden Legend Winery, Ten Spoon Winery, Mission Mountain Winery and Flathead Lake Winery all remained open and several others have started up during the same timeframe.
2) Doug will continue to be lazy. As with his last business, Doug would spend hours surfing the internet and avoiding key management duties like keeping the financial records up to date or janitorial duties like keeping the winery, tasting room and equipment clean. For example, he has yet to file his 2010 tax returns on his previous business. His financial records on those businesses are probably a mess. Doug’s wine labels are full of misspellings and other errors. Even if you buy him a dictionary, he would be too lazy to use it assuming he doesn’t lose it first.
3) Doug will always have poor business skills. He will still keep poor records, will rarely write things down, will continue to lose things, and will intentionally or unintentionally forget things. For example, in his last business, people would book the event center and Doug would be too lazy to write it down. Then, just before the event, the potential customer would confirm with him only to find Doug had booked another event on the same day. Doug once missed a court date where someone was suing him. He forgot to write it down and lost the case by default. Doug will still do a poor job in maintaining his finances. For example, in his last business, he had at least 3 bank accounts, would constantly transfer monies between the accounts to avoid overdraft fees. Fine, it is a strategy for a poorly run business but, he still managed to rack up over $5000 in bank fees in less than a year.
4) Doug’s management skills will still be sub-par. When he was overseeing the construction of the building for his last business (Lake Missoula Cellars) he, after the fact, claimed over $30,000 in expenses which could not be accounted for. However, since he kept no records and had no proof, all he could do is complain and blame others for the mistake.
5) The winery and tasting room will not be very clean. Let’s face it, Doug and cleanliness are on two different planets. In his last business, Doug would let his dogs roam freely through the winery and the tasting room/event center which included the food preparation area. One of the volunteers complained about all the dog hair on the floor in the food prep area and a customer complained about the dogs stealing food off of the table while they were eating in the event center. Doug would keep chemicals, in one case an open container of Draino, near the containers of the wine additives. Doug’s office/wine testing area was filthy. It had plates of old, half eaten food, dried spots of liquid that had spilled, open chemicals and piles of garbage and dirty glassware. Flys, bees, and other insects could be seen floating in the bins of the fermenting grapes and, for the last year he was in business, the winery, tasting room and event center were overrun by fruit flies. All are the result of a very unclean environment.
6) Doug always has a “hidden agenda” and will probably continue to look for his next “meal ticket”. Doug needs cash, preferably other people’s money, to start yet another business of his own. He will have a hard time working for someone else unless he able to call the shots and no one questions his decisions. He may not be able to do this working for the owners of the Going to the Sun Winery. Therefore, Doug will probably be using his time there to reestablish contacts and rebuild his creditability in the Good ol’ Boy network for grapes. He screwed over one Washington vineyard by not paying for grapes and the word probably spread quickly to the others. Doug probably has poor credit due to his latest business failures. He may use his new position to meet people and potential investors and eventually get his Prodigy Wines business going again.
In conclusion, Doug will more likely screw up, get mad and blame others for his mistakes. Any financial or inventory records will not be up to date and a mess. Give it a year and he will probably be gone either by choice or not by choice. He fled Missoula for a reason but, some creditors will not give up until they are paid. Then there is the IRS. He will have to file tax returns sometime or face the consequences of the IRS including fees. He will probably file the on the last day of his extension which is his way of screwing over his investors one last time. Meanwhile, this blog will continue to monitor and report on his progress or lack thereof.
Thanks to all those who emailed and provided their stories. Keep them coming.
