When four Queenstown high school mates decided to have a crack at buying their favourite Otago University student pub, the Captain Cook, the only hospitality experience they had was a “pretty big investment on one side of the bar.”

Text by Sue Fea
It was 2004. Ski racing buddies and students Richard McLeod, James Arnott and David Bulling, were aged just 21 and David’s older brother, Ben Bulling was 25.
The ailing student pub, once a thriving student local, was up for sub-lease by Dominion Breweries. McLeod was almost finished an international business degree and Arnott, once an Olympic ski racing contender, was halfway through an IT degree. The pair had successfully invested in a student flat in Dunedin just before the property boom.
“It was good luck rather than good management, but we ended up with a lot of equity and were looking at buying another flat then the Cook came up and we just fell in love with the idea of owning it,” says McLeod.
It was an emotional attachment at first – in their first couple of years at university the Cook was “the absolute place to go” but it had been under DB ownership for several years and had waned, he says. They knew it needed an owner/operator and there was money to be made.
David Bulling, then studying  engineering in Christchurch and engineer brother, Ben, who had graduated, were keen so McLeod sought advice on how to put an impressive ‘expression of interest’ package together from one of his university marketing lecturers.
They obviously made a good impression.
“When I think back it’s surprising.....but they could see we were passionate and obviously could see we weren’t stupid.”
It was a long drawn out process which led to them putting in a tender for the lease and within six months the nervous young newcomers were thrown into Queenstown law firm MacTodd’s boardroom where they fronted up to a serious grilling from the ‘suits’ representing DB.
“We were pretty scared, for a bunch of university boys they gave us a good grilling.”
But DB Breweries liked their ideas and the foursome even managed to convince the brewery giant to enter into a payback-style, buy-out scheme to sub-lease the business.
 “I think they probably saw the passion we had and the Cook was on a downward slide.”
They may have been new to hands-on business but having spent so much time on one side of the bar these boys knew just what their student patrons would want.
Within a year they had turned the ailing pub around, increasing patronage by between 35 and 40 per cent. All profits were initially reinvested straight back into the business and they completed a major renovation that first year.
“We realigned the downstairs bar and gave it much more of a younger feel, updated the entertainment systems, put in TVs, dance floors and created some zones, so people could come to the Cook for a few different occasions,” says McLeod.
Downstairs had traditionally been a ‘start the night’ venue, then patrons used to move on, but not anymore.
The Cook was now humming with resident DJs both up and downstairs four nights a week, six large plasma screens and a large garden bar.
“We got the business turned around in a few months to be making money.”
But it was no easy ride.
“It was phenomenally stressful – I was probably doing 80 hours a week and James 100 hours. We had a very good operations manager, Paul Marshall, but we had to run the business,” says McLeod.
“We were learning what hospitality was all about and what running a business was about, we were hands on pouring the beers, learning everything from the ground up – it was absolutely a tour of duty, but when everything’s on the line....”
McLeod says as young guys with no families they could put their heart and soul into the operation, but the money from that student flat could so easily have evaporated.
They were aware there would be knockers saying it would all last about three months and they’d go broke.
“There was no way we wanted to leave with our tails between our legs in six months time.”
David Bulling, who was initially in Christchurch had moved to Dunedin also and “for fun on a Sunday” they’d all clean up the pub.
“We got a pretty rude awakening.”
McLeod says there was a degree of naivety at the start. “I think we thought it would be a lot easier.”
DB financed the bulk of the buy-out purchase and we repaid them on each year anniversary. There were plenty of mistakes along the way, but “nothing major where we absolutely cocked it up”.
They always met their payments and before long were branching out into the fast food market, where they identified another gap in Dunedin’s student market.
In 2006 they opened their first ‘Velvet Burger’ in Dunedin’s main street, George St, after identifying a lack of quality late night food. The successful gourmet-style Fergburger concept was already working well back home in Queenstown and they believed they could mirror that idea into the downtown Dunedin market.
About the same time they bought a vacant commercial building in Bond St (Dunedin) – it needed renovating so they started Cook Brothers Construction. David Bulling, by now a civil engineer and his engineering brother, Ben took the helm and an off-shoot of the successful enterprise was born. The first job was turning that vacant building into eight apartments, but these days Cook Brothers Construction, run by David Bulling, is kept busy nationwide fitting out for the company.
By 2007 the boys had already opened a second Velvet Burger and soon after developed Alibi Bar and Restaurant, both in Dunedin’s Octagon.
After a consolidation period of several years the enthusiastic young entrepreneurs, by now doing very well, took over Auckland’s Fusion Bar, which is being completely renovated this winter into what will be the 420sqm Fort St Union.
“We want to become Auckland’s iconic downtown pub.”
And who better to have on their team as a partner there than their DB mentor Andrew Roborgh, who spent the last seven years working for DB, the last two years within its concept development team.
“He’s a real asset to have on our team,” says McLeod.
He says they needed a couple of years to ride the recession out and “get all our ducks in a row” before expanding further.
“Once we got to that size we needed to implement some decent systems and structure.”
These included:
- Making sure all our money was actually making its way to the bank.
- Managing our cash and stock control.
- Wage control.
- Managing variances.
- Creating supply agreements so they got the best prices across the group.
- Hiring, Induction and Training systems for staff.
That all in place it seems there’s no holding them back and this winter Cook Brothers launches its ultimate dream – a brand new pub in the thriving downtown party zone of central Queenstown, their home turf.
They’ve wanted to own a Queenstown pub for some time but have been waiting for the right site to come along. Searle Lane & Social has just opened in time for the resort’s Winter Festival in a large new commercial complex being built in Church St, which backs onto the growing hospitality precinct of Searle Lane.
They’re hoping the local market will drive it and they’re aiming to create a place of “real, quality sociability”.
“What we hope to bring is consistency – we know what makes the place tick. Our long-term project is to build something that is built to last.”
And they’re not going to stop there. Cook Brothers, which now pays wages of more than $2 million nationally throughout its hospitality and construction arm, about half of that in hospitality, has plans for solid, steady growth - more bars and more Velvet Burgers.
“I think our ideas are not necessarily ground breaking, but what we talk about we get in and make happen,” says McLeod.
One of the keys to their success has been the unique skill set that each of the friends has contributed: McLeod in marketing and human resources, Arnott in finance and innovative technology and the Bulling brothers with their practical, hands on engineering skills.
Instead of becoming costly hurdles for the business, problems become opportunities. Arnott’s IT background came in handy when the company was growing and they couldn’t find software anywhere that could completely manage their business.
He then developed and launched web-based financial hospitality management software ‘Loaded Reports’. Arnott says it produces all of the most relevant financial reports in an easy to understand format by talking to all of a company’s outlets through the till system and hosts them over the internet (www.loadedreports.com).
“You can oversee all of your businesses incomings and outgoings from anywhere with the internet,” says Arnott.
There has now been demand from other hospitality operators to adopt the specially-tailored system and they’re now selling the software nationwide at a rapid rate.
All in all not a bad business effort for four young Turks from Queenstown, three now aged just  27 and Ben Bulling (30), now a partner/shareholder, but working as an electrical engineer for Meridian Energy.
It’s one their former Wakatipu High School economics teacher Steve Hall would definitely be proud of.
Not entirely surprised back in 2005, Hall said then he had spotted their entrepreneurial flair, creativity and innovative talents as 14-year-old Year 10 students.
Roborgh agrees the Cook Brothers boys have something special.
“I think DB probably saw (in them) an ability to think outside the square. Okay is not good enough with those guys, they have a fantastic ability to break down every part of the business and make it, better, easier and more profitable.”
For three 21-year-old guys to convince an established corporation like DB that had been around for 80 or 90 years that they could run a multi-million dollar business, they had to have something, says Roborgh.
“I think it’s also their personality and their vision – there’s a real honesty about them.”
What we learnt along the way:
- As friends going into business you’ve got to be prepared to be brutally honest with each other.
- Persistence is the absolute key.
- Avoid run-ins with the Liquor Licensing Authority. McLeod concedes the Cook’s successful student ‘Cook-a-thon’ promotion became simply too big. They had to can the event or face losing their licence amid a flood of objections.
- Surround yourself with great people, an excellent legal team, accounting, business advisors and staff.
- Get up to speed with the latest business systems – McLeod and Arnott recently completed a 12 month online course with Californian company, E-Myth, worldwide forerunners in small business systems.
- Systems are key to creating consistency and giving yourself a life, learn to delegate others and train them to do things the way you want them done.
- Keep a sense of humour dealing with the ups and downs that business throws at you.
Hard lessons to avoid:
- Ending up in mediation for personal grievance claims – follow the approved process if you have to let staff go for not performing properly.
- Sending out a press release challenging the Barmy Army to drink the Cook dry – McLeod concedes this was “pretty naive” but they’ve always done things “kind of tongue in cheek”.