After several highly profitable years and a win in the 2003 National Telstra Small Business of the Year Awards, local safety boot manufacturer Footwear Industries has decided to start a charitable foundation.
After several highly profitable years and a win in the 2003 National Telstra Small Business of the Year Awards, local safety boot manufacturer Footwear Industries has decided to start a charitable foundation.
While there is not yet a designated cause for the Steel Blue Foundation – named after Footwear Industries’ successful footwear brand – the business has already secured significant donations.
Footwear Industries marketing export manager and foundation director, Peter Nichols, said the Steel Blue board expected to hold a meeting within the month to discuss ways to support the community.
The foundation was officially set up in April this year, and in June was endorsed as a deductible gift recipient, making donations tax deductible.
A registered entity, the Steel Blue Foundation Pty Ltd is the trustee for the charitable fund.
To kick off the fundraising at a recent dinner, Footwear Industries donated $17,000 to the foundation, the amount it won as Telstra Small Business of the Year.
The event was hailed as a roaring success by the organisers and was attended by more than 240 suppliers, distributors, staff and supporters, Mr Nichols said.
About a further $30,000 was raised on the night in an auction of assorted sporting memorabilia, which included a framed and signed Greg Norman golf club. Cricketing great and Steel Blue Foundation patron Dennis Lillee also donated some of his famous signed caricatures and photos of his sporting highlights.
Joining Mr Nichols on the board of the not-for-profit are fellow Footwear Industries executives Ross Fitzgerald and Greg Johnson (foundation chairman), Grant Thornton senior partner Geoff Kidd and Conquest Advertising director Ian Johnson.
Mr Nichols that, since the Telstra award, the business had been expanding at a rate of between 35 and 40 per cent each year.
“Ross [Fitzgerald] and I travel extensively and only cross paths now and again,” he said.
“We wanted to set the foundation up first and do it right, this took time.”
Footwear Industries chairman Don Holmes said that, although the business was only 10 years old, the past few years had been “very good”, with Steel Blue now regarded as one of the best safety footwear brands in the world.
“We believe it is only fair and right to give something back to the communities that have supported us so strongly,” he said.
The Steel Blue Foundation plans to hold annual fundraising events such as the dinner.
A percentage of every pair of Steel Blue boots sold will also be donated to the foundation.
