Rodney Duke spent all his working life in the retail sector. After leaving school in Adelaide, he commenced work with retailers in South Australia before moving to Waltons in Sydney in 1980.
From 1981 to 1988 he held the positions of New South Wales Manager of Homecraft/Eric Anderson Stores, a senior merchandise executive for Grace Brothers, then managing director of Norman Ross.
In September 1988, Mr Duke became the managing director of Briscoes (New Zealand), at that time a subsidiary of Hagemeyer of the Netherlands, with a mandate of returning the company to profitability and preparing it for sale. In 1996, he established, and in subsequent years expanded, the Rebel Sport chain of sporting goods stores in New Zealand as a business within the Briscoe Group.
