Business graduates open campus bar

When Andrew Jackson and Andrew Waite started their Bachelor of Business degrees at the University’s Albany campus, neither of them really imagined that a plan they hatched there would come to fruition more than 10 years later.

But the pair have made their vision into a reality, turning an old car park into a campus bar where students, staff and visitors meet and mingle, play pool, listen to a jukebox, and dance to DJ sounds by night.

The entrepreneurial pair are joint owners of The Ferguson Bar, which with the support of the University opened on campus in February, as well as The Saint and restaurant Flax in nearby Browns Bay. Waite, who manages The Ferguson Bar, describes himself as the more practical partner, and Jackson as the strategist. While studying tourism and marketing at Albany, Waite was student union executive member and also managed the then campus bar, Scholars.

“It’s that experience that has shaped me - I got at lot out of University by putting a lot into things as well as study. I love hospitality and now we get to provide a really good student service. The students are a great group of people - they’re a fantastic bunch, intelligent, energetic, enthusiastic and passionate. They’re also likely to be the future leaders of New Zealand,” he says.

Prior to going into partnership with Jackson, Waite – now 34 - had been with DB Breweries for six years, starting in their call centre and working his way up the ranks to key account and sales management roles. As for Jackson, he had several small businesses going even when he was still a student, and quickly discovered after graduating that working for other people was not his thing. His first job was sales representative for Neat Feet, but by 24 he had bought the company out with a two others who worked there. They built the business up and took it global before Jackson sold out about four years ago.

“I guess if you don’t like being told what to do or working 9am to 5pm, this is what you do instead. I think you’ve just got to be driven and have a healthy ambition to do your own thing. Once you’re comfortable with the risks, you get some great returns,” says Jackson.

While developing Neat Feet the now 30-year-old also set up a product broking business to supermarkets, which he still has, largely supplying pharmaceuticals. Jackson also has a mid- market merger and acquisition business called CDI Global with two partners in Australia. He admits though that it has not all been plain sailing with his enterprises. Import and currency trading businesses have gone belly up along the way, but that is something Jackson is philosophical about: “You either don’t take the risk at all or quit, or you use your skills make it work,” he says.