Name: Doug Restemayer
Position: President and owner of D-S Beverages and current board chairman of the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce
His story: A native of Cavalier, N.D., Restemayer graduated from the University of North Dakota at a time when many young people were leaving the state to pursue a career.
He spent nearly 20 years working for Ralston Purina and Target in Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri and Minneapolis before returning to Fargo-Moorhead to assume the role of president of D-S Beverages in 2000.
His father-in-law, Don Setter, owned the company at the time. He was considering selling before Restemayer showed interest.
Restemayer said Setter did not know much about his work experience. He jokes that all they used to talk about was beer and Notre Dame football at the family holiday. So, he sent him a resume and two weeks later they had a deal.
He spent the next 10 years working side-by-side his father-in-law.
“He taught me not just about the business but how to treat people,” Restemayer said.
Expansion: D-S Beverages has undergone substantial growth in recent years.
One of the driving forces has been the growing number of beer products available.
When Setter started out, the company sold seven different products and moved about 67,000 cases a year, Restemayer said.
Today, they distribute around 700 products and will move about 2.4 million cases this year.
“Bud and Bud Light will always be big sellers, but there are a group of consumers who want to try craft beers so that has definitely grown,” he said.
In addition to Anheuser Busch products, D-S Beverages now distributes craft beers like Bells, Boulder, Breckenridge and Lucid. The company has also branched out into non-alcoholic beverages such as Monster and Arizona Tea.
D-S Beverages also bought out smaller Minnesota distributorships in Crookston in 2013 and in Brainerd last month. Today, it sells products to retailers within about a 100-mile-radius of Fargo-Moorhead.
More products require more space, so the company has also undergone two large warehouse expansions in the past five years.
Restemayer said he hopes the company is not done growing.
“We’re certainly looking for other opportunities to grow,” Restemayer said. “It’s a very fast evolving business of alcohol distribution. You get the liquor guys and the wine guys getting into beer, and that’s not to say we wouldn’t do the same. It’s wide open in terms of what a guy wants to pursue.”
Chamber: Restemayer is thankful he returned to the state and has been able to witness the unprecedented growth of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo in recent years.
In order for it to continue, Restemayer said the biggest issues facing the Chamber right now are permanent flood protection and workforce shortage.
Although he realizes neither can be solved in a year, those are the issues he plans to focus on during his tenure as board chairman.
