DWR welcomes Stuart Andrews
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“I’m so positive and happy to be back in South Africa and at DWR,” said Stuart, who has lived in Rwanda and Dubai for well over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think this move had been on the cards for some time, to be honest. I had wanted to change out of the rental and production side of the industry for some time now, and I’ve always been close to the people at DWR; a company respected within the industry and one with extremely high standards in terms of service delivery and client focus.”
Andrews has enjoyed a vibrant career in the live events industry for the past 30 years. He started working as a sound technician in 1992 while completing a bachelor of commerce degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, juggling between his student commitments and his involvement in the student radio station.
Once he had graduated, Andrews freelanced as a sound technician in Durban for smaller companies until he took on a permanent position at the Wild Coast Sun, taking care of the theatre, show bar and conference centre’s audio requirements. There, he met his wife Debbie. The couple then moved up to Johannesburg when Andrews joined Caesars Palace, today known as Emperors Palace, before relocating to Dubai in 2000 for three years, where Andrews headed up the AV department at the Jumeirah International Hotel Group and worked as a project manager at Protec (Production Technology).
Upon returning to South Africa in 2003, he joined Gearhouse South Africa for 17 years, fulfilling various positions from project manager, branch operations manager in Durban, heading the lighting department in Johannesburg, and finally, operations manager in Johannesburg.
Just before the COVID-19 pandemic, Andrews joined Sound Stylists as general manager. “It wasn’t the longest stay, not through choice but just the Covid-19 situation, really. As companies in Johannesburg could not operate due to the pandemic restrictions, I took up contract work with Rwanda Events Group and the BK Arena (Formerly known as Kigali Arena),” he explains. “Then my old friend, Eddie Mulrainey, who runs a company called 3DB in Dubai, offered me a role of a Project Manager, where I worked for the past nine months whilst my family continued living in Johannesburg.”
Duncan Riley of DWR Distribution comments: “Stuart and I have always had a professional relationship and have remained friends over the years, through thick and thin, whether Gearhouse purchased gear from us or our competitors. I've always liked and respected Stuart, and it's really great to welcome him to the team.”
Andrews adds: "The industry is getting back on its feet again, it’s needed once more, and it's positive to see people working,” says Stuart. “There is such a good spirit and while we obviously mourn the companies that fell by the wayside, and we mourn the colleagues we lost; we have come out stronger. You realize what is a luxury, what is a necessity and, when you look at your list of necessities it's quite small. What's important is family obviously, that always going to be an absolute priority, and as long as they are happy and you are together that's goal number one for me, putting food on the table, a roof over their heads and paying the school fees. If I'm happy in the way I can provide these things, even better, and I think I'm going to be happy at DWR, I just feel it. I've known everyone at DWR for years, almost since day one. I remember DWR coming down to do roadshows in Durban and when I was running the Gearhouse Lighting Department we worked side by side with everyone in the company – I have had most of their telephone numbers in my phone for years! Walking into a happy working environment with people I know is so much easier.”
