Jester’s pies were first sold by Cindy Findlayson at a Nedlands deli. The pies proved so popular, she decided to open a Jester’s Jaffle Pie Company store in Claremont in 1997 that concentrated solely on pies. An initial attempt at franchising in 2000 proved unsuccessful and Ms Findlayson was bought out by her accountant and business partner, Richard Anderson, a former general manager of Watties Foods. By 2002 it had 32 stores and was bought out by pastoral group AA Co, run by Peter Holmes a Court. ASIC records current in March 2017 showed the Jesters business was majority owned by a consortium of three NSW businessmen Neil Whittaker, a former chief executive of the National Rugby League, and his associates John McGuigan, chairman of Krispy Kreme Australia, and John Atkinson who were mentioned in dispatches for their involvement in White Energy, a company mixed up in an ICAC investigation of former NSW resources minister Eddie Obeid. Their junior partner is Souls Private Equity Limited, a private equity arm of Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Company.
