Foy & Gibson

Foy & Gibson

Type	Department Store
Industry	Retail
Founded	1883
Headquarters	Australia
Products	clothing, manchester, leather goods, soft furnishings, furniture, hardware, food

Former warehouses and factories built for the company in Oxford Street, Collingwood.

Foy & Gibson (also known as Foy's) was one of Australia's earliest department store chains, modelled on Le Bon Marché in Paris and other European and American Stores of the period. A large range of goods were manufactured and sold by the company including clothing, manchester, leather goods, soft furnishings, furniture, hardware and food.^[1]

The first store was established as a drapery in Smith Street, Collingwood, Victoria by Mark Foy. Ownership of this business was transferred to his son Francis Foy in partnership with Willam Gibson in March 1883. Francis Foy later sold his half share of the business to Gibson and moved to Sydney, establishing Mark Foy's there.^[2]

Gibson established a branch of the business in Perth in 1895, and subsequently opened a store in Brisbane in 1903 and another in Rundle Street, Adelaide in 1907.^[2][3]

In 1955, the company was bought out by Cox Brothers and in 1964, Foy & Gibson (WA) Ltd, including ten stores in Western Australia, was sold to David Jones. The Bourke Street Melbourne store was sold to Woolworths in 1967.^[4] The Adelaide store continued to trade under the Cox-Foys banner - owned by Harris Scarfe until it closed in 1977.

References

1. "Part of former Foy and Gibson Complex". Heritage Victoria. Archived from the original on 2008-03-19. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
2. "Gibson, William (1842? - 1918)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
3. "A MAMMOTH STORE.". The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931) (Adelaide, SA: National Library of Australia). 7 September 1907. p. 10. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
4. "Cox Brothers (Australia) Ltd (1928 - )". Guide to Australian Business Records. Retrieved 2008-04-27.