Risks bring rewards, says US entrepreneur 

In 2001, American Ed Aster made a spur-of-the moment decision to buy the Hotel du Vin near Pokeno. Picture / Martin Sykes

Ed Aster is not easily offended.

A 1997 article in United States newspaper the Register-Guard said those who admired Aster called him smart, creative and even visionary. Those less enamoured with him described him as audacious, pushy - a bulldozer.

Seeing the article for the first time, Aster wonders where the insult lies. "I don't find audacious or a bulldozer to be negative," said Aster, who is well on his way to building a New Zealand empire just four years after emigrating here.

"You have to be audacious to make things happen. You have to be a bulldozer to get things to move."

And that's just what the non-drinker has done by teaming up with The Warehouse in its recently announced move into selling liquor.

A serial entrepreneur, Aster first made money publishing trade magazines, but after selling up turned his hand to property development. Some US$100 million ($142 million) worth of property went through his hands as buildings and land left behind after the publishing deal were turned into business parks and telecommunications centres.

His interest in commercial property soon waned. "It was really pretty boring."

In 2001, Aster made a spur-of-the moment purchase of the Hotel Du Vin in Pokeno and an ancillary wine business when on holiday in New Zealand. Then he established the luxury Spa Du Vin and Wellness Centre.

It's a business in keeping with a teetotaller who doesn't smoke, spends 45 minutes on a treadmill every day and gets up at four in the morning to meditate.

Aster says he has been described as the ultimate entrepreneur but would put things a little more simply.

"It is just that I recognise opportunities and act on them. I've recognised a lot of opportunities in New Zealand - and I've acted on them."

The Warehouse venture, the multi-millionaire will be a 10 per cent partner in Warehouse Cellars, has pushed him into the spotlight.

Reluctant to talk in depth about the venture, he labels it a "wonderful opportunity" and a chance to participate in changing the way people shop as the retail world moves to the one-stop-shop model prevalent in the United States for the past decade.

"The Warehouse is highly regarded: it's very much a part of Kiwi society and culture, whether you're making a six-figure salary or a lot less. We're always looking for value for money," said Aster.

He has shopped at the discount retailer's distinctive Red Sheds himself, even before the partnership - despite a fortune the NBR Rich List puts at $35 million. He casts doubt on the figure, but is not about to be drawn into a "tacky" discussion about net worth.

Still, he has a laugh over his inclusion on this year's "inactive wealth index", described as including those who built their wealth long ago and are now at a passive investment phase.

New Zealand has attracted Aster since he first visited as a 17-year-old. He spent a year in Australia and New Zealand as part of a four-year-long OE that had begun the year before and took him around the world.

It kept drawing him back. The trip during which he bought the hotel was the fourth time he and wife Barbara had found themselves in New Zealand in a year.

It was the country's beauty that persuaded the pair to emigrate.

The move has not been without its challenges. Despite having often visited, Aster says things are "totally different when you are committed to making this your home".

Some of Aster's associates questioned why he would leave the US to live in a small country at the end of the world. But he downplays the hurdles to business.

New Zealand's isolated location is just a "bad night's sleep" away from the large US market. Despite having never tasted the wine he sells, Aster is one of the largest exporters of Marlborough sauvignon blanc to the US, by virtue of a joint venture with a New York importer.

"We are firmly convinced that there is a great deal of opportunity," he said. "I sit back and chuckle when I hear small this and small that."

His holdings here are still small-scale compared with what he has managed in the US.

Aster set up Aster Publishing in 1977, which grew to have annual revenues of more than US$24 million by the time it was sold to publisher Advanstar, owned by a unit of investment bank Goldman Sachs. That deal gave Aster a 10 per cent stake in Advanstar, a board seat and a job as chief executive of one of the largest trade publishers in the US.

He resigned two years after taking on the job. Aster disagrees with reports that suggested the company had struggled with poor morale as magazines were relocated during his watch. He says he left two years into a three-year contract because the company was moving further into trade shows and his expertise was in publishing. "I felt I had gone as far as I could in what I could offer."

But it wasn't the easiest time.

Aster said he jumped from running a company with about 250 employees to running one with 1700. "I learned a whole side of the industry I was not privy to before."

He also learned what it was like to work with one of the world's pre-eminent banks.

"I can't say they were the most enjoyable two years of my life, but it was a great adventure."

One regret he still has is that he was never able to launch the best title he ever thought of, a trade magazine for the publishing industry he wanted to call Magazine Magazine. While the project was under way he found out a rival was ahead by two months. A firm believer in the value of being first, he pulled the plug.

Property development followed the exit from publishing, but after about five years Aster largely handed over to managers.

He has not been quite as lucky in New Zealand. A management deal with Australian luxury boutique accommodation chain Peppers Retreats and Resorts for his hotel ended in April with Aster taking back the reins.

His appeal to The Warehouse is likely to come from that track record of successfully building businesses.

Aster says the fundamental process of putting together a good business is to first recognise a need, then provide a service or product to meet it, and develop a sophisticated and professional way to market it.

Self-belief is one key to success as an entrepreneur.

But there is another key. "You have to be really willing to take big risks.

"Big risks equal big rewards."


Edward Aster
* Born: US, March 20, 1948.
* Married: To Barbara Aster since 1979, with three children. They have two grandchildren.
* Education: Alexander Hamilton High School, Los Angeles, Aspen Institute course on business leadership, Colorado, London School of Economics, periodical publisher course on international marketing. Lectured at the London School of Economics, Boston University School of Business, The University of Oregon School of Journalism, University of California, Los Angeles School of Business, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.
* Work: Director and chairman of Aster Publishing, director and chief executive of Advanstar Communications, director Blackwell Scientific, director Leeward Holdings investment portfolio (current), director and chief executive Hotel Du Vin and Spa Du Vin (current), director and chief executive Firstland Vineyards (current), director and chief executive Reliance Wines (current), director and joint venture shareholder Warehouse Cellars (current).
* Interests: Fishing, fine art, family and friends.