Geoff Foard has an extensive amount of experience in business. He gleaned two years of retail experience in department stores in Melbourne before heading off overseas to study retail with Sears in the United States and Canada and also attended summer training and study courses at Oxford University in England.

He returned to family department stores, Foards in Sale and Bairnsdale in 1960 after an absence of three years marking a career in retail lasting 25 years that covered almost all facets of the business employing up to 130 staff at its peak.

As far as senior sales and departmental management were concerned Geoff was responsible for achieving budgeted sales, merchandising, housekeeping, stock control and stock turn, depth of inventory levels, buying, supplier negotiation, promotion of stock in store, and motivation and performance of up 100 sales & executive staff

Geoff also became actively involved at various stages in sales and management training, both formally and on the job. As the company’s personnel director for a period of six years, he was responsible for staff selection and recruitment, vacancy advertisements, liaison with employment agencies, and wage and salary assessment and negotiation with managers and sales personnel.

As a director and company sales manager at Foards, Geoff was involved in sales promotion and advertising of major events amongst other things such as television promotion, radio time purchasing and recording, catalogue productions and selecting lines.

At a director level he reviewed monthly profit and loss accounts by store and department, markdown reports, open-to-buy reports, and current marketing results. In 1985 Geoff resigned from the company Foard Holdings Pty Ltd and went on to the next phase of his career.

In 1977 Geoff had built a 100-seat bistro on the Mornington Peninsula called JG’s Family Restaurant which was managed by a chef but was owned by Geoff for the next 15 years.

Continuing his interest in the hospitality industry, Geoff commenced construction in 1985 of a 4 ½ star hotel/ski lodge at Dinner Plain in the Victorian ski fields named Foard At Dinner Plain. This 80-bed, 18-unit establishment also included a restaurant that provided seating for 60 people and opened for season 1986. Geoff operated this business until the end of 1989 and in peak season employed six full-time and five part-time staff. He trained staff in reservations, bar and liquor control, table waiting, room management and food preparation. The lodge continues to run to this day, albeit under the name of High Plains Lodge.

In 1992, Geoff and his son, Andrew opened a men’s and women’s fashion store in Bairnsdale with an emphasis on fashion sportswear employing five staff members. Stock control and sales analysis were maintained using the ‘Minder’ system from Syscap, a sophisticated software program giving total retail analysis both at point of sale and back office for bar code production. Another outlet was opened in Metung in 1998 before the business was sold in 2001 due to excessive rent costs.