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The career achievements of Geoff Lord, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Belgravia Group, have been charted in a feature in the latest edition (issue 165) of Australasian Leisure Management magazine.

The feature, which follows on from Lord receiving the AUSactive Chair’s Award in October - presented at the 2024 AUSactive Award Gala - not only covers his many decades of success in backing businesses across the leisure industry but also his vision for the future.

As Lord, who is approaching his ninth decade states “the closer you get to the tape, the harder you run”.

At an age when many would be thinking of slowing down, Lord takes a contrary view driving his businesses based upon a commitment to get current and future generations more physically active.

As for his drive, Lord notes “I'm a fairly simple bloke and I love business, I love markets and I love that activity and it's always been about the chance for me to do something that I'm creating myself.

“If business wasn't my job, it'd be my hobby. I have a passion for business, the cutting edge of business and the mental games in business, but I'd rather combine business with the philosophy of trying to help people.”

Explaining how his leisure businesses have evolved, Lord advised “we've moved now into new areas from originally starting in swimming (through Belgravia Leisure) and then to health clubs and then to gymnastics (and) we're now starting to move into outdoor education, into dance, into cheer, into new activities.

“But we want to be more deeply involved and that includes in some way being involved in the goal setting of those sectors and in the regulations that control those sectors.”

With a head office compliment of just four, Lord is confident in the abilities of his senior executives, noting “I'm a businessman without massive involvement in the day-to-day of these industries, but I think you can help to coordinate it and set targets and then get the people to try to achieve those targets. And that's what we're trying to do.

“It really is a commercial business model in one way, but we only want to do it in areas where we think people can benefit.”

Lord also has a record of backing a range of fledgling businesses, taking a strategic stake to help their development before divesting his interest when the business reaches maturity.

With banks and institutional investors often lacking understanding of the leisure industry, Lord’s backing has been invaluable to a range of companies that may otherwise have struggled while those he has backed always acknowledge his support.

In his role at the Belgravia Group, a family owned, family run, multigenerational business which he founded in 1990, Lord is responsible for, and has ownership (or part ownership), of a broad sweep of businesses in Australia and New Zealand, including many in the leisure industry. These include Belgravia Leisure, Belgravia Health and Fitness (including Genesis Health and Fitness, Coaching Zone and Ninja Parc), JUMP! Swim Schools, Recreational Gymnastics Australia, BK’s Gymnastics, Belgravia Pro, Belgravia Outdoor Education, Australian Sports Camps, The Dance Society and the Sports Community along with industry supplier Novofit, registered training organisation Belgravia Academy and the recently acquired GymbaROO. His other businesses include Belgravia Events, Belgravia Apparel, Belgravia Finance, Belgravia Properties, Belgravia Technologies, Belgravia Investments and a business services division. He has also created the Belgravia Foundation, a registered charity that aims to reduce barriers to participation in aquatics, fitness, recreation, sport and wellness programs for children and people with a disability, of diversity and those who experience disadvantage, with a focus of its work in the catchment areas where the Belgravia Group operates. In addition to these achievements, he has been President of AFL club Hawthorn, Chairman of A-League club Melbourne Victory and is currently one of the principal backers of the WNBL team the Boomers move to Geelong. Lord's lifelong love of sport has expanded into a commitment to not only the business side of physical activity in many forms but also as an advocate for improving exercise and activity levels among younger people.

Operations
In his interview with Australasian Leisure Management Publisher Nigel Benton, Lord went on to explain that “Belgravia is made up of a number of silos in different sectors with silo headed by chief executives who are subject experts and run the businesses day to day.

“I compare my role to being a bit like the conductor of an orchestra - the chief executives are the expert musicians who can play while my job is to coordinate the sound to create something at the end.

“That's what Belgravia is about, having experts run their fields against budgets and reporting, adding up to the net result of Belgravia … and that's the process that we've run for a long time.

“And we are building, now employing over 12,000 people”

AUSactive Chair's Award
Commenting on his receipt of the 2024 AUSactive Chair's Award, Lord noted “it's a great industry and I think to play a role in a platonic way in the industry is very satisfying.

“We have set ourselves an objective of getting to a million kids a year to make them more active, having them engaged in less screen time and, instead, doing more constructive and healthy activities and I'm obsessed with being able to do that.

“It's a responsibility of people like myself and other business leaders to try to create something worthwhile for mankind and I am committed to making a contribution to ensure this industry more effective.”

Across a broad sweep of companies which are loosely divided into those dedicated to movement and those to business, Lord currently has three major goals, “tax deductibility for programs that help people be more active; to build a significant investment fund, which would enable more facilities to be built; and to get more people actually in the industry enjoying the industry and participating.”

Commenting on this, he added “I think that's very important.

“If I can make a contribution those ways, I'd be really pleased to.”

Moving Forward
Currently Lord has set himself an internal program called Quincentum - to have 500 facilities operating.

He advises “for all you Latin students, you'll know that Quincentum is 500 and we want to create 500 new facilities over the next five years.

“Now can we do that? I don't know. Can we have a crack at doing that? … definitely, and that's what we'll try to do.

“We're also doing, I think, good things in essential services such as the work Belgravia eHealth is doing with state ambulance services and in areas like immersion therapy where we're taking people who can't move limbs, have spinal or neck problems or injuries, and we're trying to get them underwater with exercise physiologists for 45 minutes.

“Water has low resistance and through immersion therapy we can see people get some movement in their limbs.

“Can they sustain that when they come out of the water? It's an interesting question and we're not sure of the answer yet, but they are getting some movement.

“I think that's important in life too, to do good things, look at you Nigel, you put together this magazine, it inspires the industry, you're making your contribution through doing that and I applaud it.”

Commenting on how he continues to build things, Lord notes “for example, we've recently bought into GymbaROO, because we want to get to younger kids from six months onwards.

“Belgravia Apparel has the rights to New Balance for teams in Australia and New Zealand, and now New Balance have asked us to go international with that concept supplying teams.

“We've also bought into the Boomers in the women's NBL basketball who we have relocated to Geelong because provincial towns need those goals or sporting outlets, if you like, and the success that those sporting outlets can bring them.

“Tomorrow is what we're about, and tomorrow we want to have a bigger and greater influence in the health and wellness of people, both adults and kids.”

Subscribers and members of Australasian Leisure Management’s partner organisations will have received the latest issue of the publication - number 165 - in the leadup to the Christmas holidays. Subscribers can click here to view this issue.

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20th November 2023 - Swimming Australia and Belgravia Leisure renew water safety lessons program

25th September 2023 - Cérge partnership with Belgravia Foundation and Belgravia Leisure secures 2023 AUSactive National Innovation Award

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6th July 2023 - Belgravia Leisure looks to hire up to 1,500 lifeguards and swim teachers ahead of summer

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24th November 2023 - New Les Mills program launched at Genesis Ballarat Gym 24/7

23rd January 2013 - Geoff Lord backs new Belgravia Sports venture

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