Expat Success Stories – Graham Cordery – The Soda Factory

Ever wondered about expat life in Australia? In our Expat Success stories series we talk to the owner of Sydney’s The Soda Factory Graham Cordery about how his love for travel and his talent for throwing awesome parties turned his life upside down and landed him Down Under.

A club night promoter now with his very own venue, Graham Cordery is an example of someone making it Down Under. Originally from Coventry, he came to Australia, worked in a call centre, got a few DJ gigs that turned into a regular slot, began running weekly club nights at one of Australia’s biggest hospitality groups and bought a blank canvas which turned into The Soda Factory – remarkable for a bloke that didn’t plan on staying past a month!

“Funnily enough, I never really fancied Oz myself, and as soon as I got here I loved it straight away. Luckily I got the working holiday visa just in case and I was out of cash so I started working. One thing led to another and a month became 11 years and counting!”

Proof that you really can make a success of yourself in Australia, Cordery’s first job wasn’t exactly one you’d associate with the fast-paced life of a club night promoter – cold calling to sell raffle tickets for the fire service – but his DJ experience in the UK and Ibiza led to She, his first big success, and the ball started rolling.

“I started working as a DJ pretty quickly, making a few connections. I think I threw my first party a year after I got here. Originally, it was going to be a one-off, but it was pretty successful – we had about 500 people turn up and the venue only held 250. So I thought, “This is alright, I’ll probably do it again next month!” I started to run weekly club nights for other venues and on the strength of that, in 2009/10, we were asked to run events at ivy. My office was based on site at the venue, but it was a relationship where I was running it through my own business, as an external promoter. We did that for about three years. We looked after their Saturday nights, putting through about 4,000 people each weekend as well as public holidays, New Year’s Eve parties.”

Booking world-renowned artists such as Laidback Luke, Basement Jaxx and Grandmaster Flash, events at ivy ultimately took off, as did the boat party scene and warehouse venues that Cordery undoubtedly contributed to. Despite becoming one of the most successful promoters in Sydney – “New Year’s Eve sold out three weeks before and I had every promoter in Sydney like, “how the fuck did you do that?” – he now runs a venue that’s all his own.

The Soda Factory opened early in 2013 and has since garnered a loyal following for its hot dogs, movie nights and weekend shenanigans. Considering it was never Cordery’s intention to have his own club, he has mastered the hell out of it.

“It was never a dream of mine to own a venue, and there have been times throughout the years where I’ve thought about the headache of owning a venue; you’ve got the rent, stock, utility bills and licensing, and I was happy to just bring the people to the venues. But I went to Miami a couple of years ago and saw the service level that they bring, cool bars and venues, and I started to see that I’d like to have a blank canvas and create something special myself.”

So, with all his success and making a life for himself Down Under, what would Cordery suggest to the next generation of expats?

“Definitely give it a go. It’s a place full of opportunities if you go out and look.”

Check out the Soda Factory here