How a bank IT analyst became $50m New World Te Atatū owner/operator

In his late 20s, Scott Jackson was doing well, working as an IT business analyst at a bank’s head office in New Zealand – ASB North Wharf in Auckland.

But he wanted more: instead of working for others, he wanted to be in charge of his own business and had known that from when he was young.

“From the age of 10 or 12, I helped out in a McDonald’s which my mother Janet owned in Napier. She taught me what it means to do a hard day’s work.”

He’d done a Bachelor of Commerce at Otago, and the bank work looked to be his future.

Yet in 2013, he made the brave decision to ditch it all and make a career switch.

He left ASB and credits Kym Samuels with giving him his first big break in food retailing.

She employed him when she owned New World Eastridge and helped him understand food retailing.

“I started off in my late 20s stacking cans of baked beans. It was humbling.”

Jackson learned to be a grocer from the lowliest position up, his goal was one day to buy into the co-operative and own his own supermarket.

“It was risky, hard and scary.”

Yet he kept his eye on the goal of owning his own business.

To get capital to buy into the Foodstuffs (North Island) network, Jackson bought a Te Atatū South residential property, split it in two, did it up and sold it for a profit.

That gave him the money to begin applying to buy small stores.

In 2017, Scott and his wife Ashleigh bought Four Square Paihia in the Bay of Islands.

Operating a small supermarket in a competitive market provided valuable experience and helped establish them.

After four years in Paihia, Scott and Ashleigh Jackson became owner/operators of New World Tawa in 2021.

During their five years there, they built strong connections within the community, including Te Umu ki Rangituhi, Porirua’s social supermarket that Foodstuffs helped open in 2024.

On August 11, the Jacksons will open New World Te Atatū, returning to the city where much of Ashleigh’s family lives.

“Our vision is that in 12 months’ time, it looks like it has just been opened: QSC!” says Jackson, the letters short for quality, service and cleanliness.

The Jacksons have invited 14 staff from New World Tawa to work with them at the Te Atatū store.

Jackson credits former New World Thorndon owner/operator Brian Drake with inspiring him to become a grocer but also telling him of the realities.

“I was 21 and Brian told me if you want to do this, you are never going to live overseas, you’ve got to commit and work seven days a week,” Scott Jackson recalls.

Foodstuffs spent $50 million buying, upgrading and expanding the ex-Woolworths Te Atatū.

About 15,000 residents in the area were left without a supermarket on their peninsula because of the big programme.

The Jacksons’ children, Barry (6) and Bella (4) are scheduled to cut the ribbon at New World Te Atatū on August 11.

Scott Jackson

Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 26 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.