Fortnum & Mason

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Not to be confused with Fortum.
Fortnum & Mason
Type Privately held company
Industry Retail
Founded London, England (1707 (1707))
Founder(s) William Fortnum and
Hugh Mason
Headquarters London, England, United Kingdom
Number of locations 3
Area served United Kingdom
United States
Japan
Key people Jana Khayat (Chairman)
Products Luxury goods
Employees c. 5,000 (2008)
Parent Wittington Investments Ltd
Website fortnumandmason.com
Fortnum & Mason at Piccadilly
The fruit and flowers section on the ground floor of Fortnum and Mason.
Protesters occupying the porch roof of the store during the anti-cuts protests, March 2011

Fortnum & Mason (colloquially often shortened to just "Fortnum's") is a department store situated in central London, with two branches in Japan. Its headquarters is located at 181 Piccadilly, where it was established in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason. It is privately owned by Wittington Investments Ltd.

Fortnum and Mason is recognised internationally for its high quality goods and as an iconic British symbol. It has held many Royal Warrants over the past 150 years.

Founded as a grocery store, Fortnum's reputation was built on supplying quality food, and saw rapid growth throughout the Victorian era. Though Fortnum's developed into a department store, it continues to focus on stocking a variety of exotic, speciality and also 'basic' provisions.[1]

The store has since opened several other departments, such as the Gentlemen's department on the top floor. It is also the location of a celebrated tea shop and several restaurants.

Contents

History [edit]

In 1761, William Fortnum's grandson Charles went into the service of Queen Charlotte and the Royal Court affiliation led to an increase in business. Fortnum & Mason claims to have invented the Scotch egg in 1738.[2][3] The store began to stock speciality items, namely ready-to-eat luxury meals such as fresh poultry or game served in aspic jelly.[4]

During the Napoleonic Wars, the emporium supplied dried fruit, spices and other preserves to the British officers and during the Victorian era it was frequently called upon to provide food for prestigious Court functions. Queen Victoria even sent shipments of Fortnum and Mason's concentrated beef tea to Florence Nightingale's hospitals during the Crimean War.[5]

Charles Drury Edward Fortnum F.S.A. (1820–1899), of the family, was a distinguished art collector and a Trustee of the British Museum, to which he donated his collection of Islamic ceramics.[6]

In 1886, after having bought the entire stock of five cases of a new product made by H.J. Heinz, Fortnum & Mason became the first store in Britain to stock tins of baked beans.[5]

In April 1951, Canadian businessman W. Garfield Weston acquired the store and became its chairman following a boardroom coup.[7] In 1964, he commissioned a four-ton clock to be installed above the main entrance of the store as a tribute to its founders. Every hour, 4-foot-high (1.2 m) models of William Fortnum and Hugh Mason emerge and bow to each other, with chimes and 18th century-style music playing in the background. Since Garfield Weston's death in 1978, the store has been run by his granddaughters, Jana Khayat and Kate Weston Hobhouse and the Managing Director is Ewan Venters.

The store underwent a £24 million refurbishment in 2007 as part of its tercentenary celebrations.[8]

In November 2010, animal rights group PETA UK began a campaign against Fortnum & Mason’s sale of foie gras citing the cruelty in the production process. The group regularly holds demonstrations involving celebrities, activists and volunteers outside the store. A PETA UK staff member changed her name[9] in September 2011 to StopFortnumAndMasonFoieGrasCruelty.com in an effort to push the campaign through to completion. Celebrities supporting the campaign include Sir Roger Moore,[10] Owain Yeoman,[11] Tamara Ecclestone,[12] Bill Oddie[13] and Twiggy.[14] Fortnum & Mason has recently been reprimanded by Westminster Trading Standards for misleading customers about its animal welfare standards.[15] As a result, the grocer has changed its corporate social responsibility document to state that only UK suppliers are required to adhere to its welfare standards.

On 26 March 2011, Fortnum & Mason was targeted by UK Uncut during anti-cuts protests over the tax avoidance policies of Associated British Foods, which, like Fortnum & Mason, is owned by Wittington Investments.[16] This took the form of a mass sit-in and vandalism. As of 27 March some protesters were still reportedly behind bars.[17] The charitable Garfield Weston Foundation owns 79.2% of Wittington Investments.

In March 2012, the Queen, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge made their first official joint visit to Fortnum & Mason.[18]

Hampers [edit]

Fortnum & Mason is famed for its loose-leaf tea and its world-renowned luxury picnic hampers, which the store first distributed to Victorian High Society for events such as the Henley Regatta and Ascot Races. These hampers – which contain luxury items such as Stilton cheese, champagne, Quails eggs and smoked salmon – remain popular today, especially at Christmas time and can cost (as of 2008) anything from £35 up to £25,000.

Gallery [edit]

  • The famous clock on the façade of the main building

  • Fortnum & Mason

  • Fortnum & Mason

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Suzy Gershman (2006). Born to Shop London. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7645-9891-3. Retrieved 2013-02-05. 
  2. ^ "Single Hen Scotch Egg". Fortnum & Mason. Retrieved 22 August 2011. 
  3. ^ Glancey, Jonathan (5 November 2007). "A facial at Fortnums? Never!". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2013-02-05. 
  4. ^ "1700s". F&M. Retrieved 2013-02-05. 
  5. ^ a b "1800s". F&M. Retrieved 2013-02-05. 
  6. ^ Lee Sorensen. "Dictionary of Art Historians". DictionaryOfArtHistorians.org. Retrieved 2012-02-04. 
  7. ^ "Lord Ampthill". The Daily Telegraph. 26 April 2011. Retrieved 2013-02-05. 
  8. ^ "2007". F&M. 11 May 2006. Retrieved 2013-02-05. 
  9. ^ "Moore praises foie gras campaigner over name change". Daily Express (Express.co.uk). 8 September 2011. Retrieved 2013-02-04. 
  10. ^ "Sir Roger Moore Says, 'Foie Gras Is Cruel, Not Yule'". PETA. 24 December 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2011. 
  11. ^ "Owain Yeoman Joins Foie Gras". Female First. 16 June 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2011. 
  12. ^ "Tamara Ecclestone: ‘I’ve got a basic palate and simple needs’". Croatian Times (croatiantimes.com). 2 December 2009. Retrieved 2013-02-05. 
  13. ^ "Bill ‘Santa’ Oddie Delivers Bag of Coal to ‘Naughty’ Fortnum & Mason". PETA. 10 November 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2011. 
  14. ^ "Twiggy Steps Up Foie Gras Campaign". Contactmusic. 23 June 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2011. 
  15. ^ Jamie Doward and Jemima Owen (17 December 2011). "Fortnum and Mason faces celebrity battle over its sale of 'cruel' foie gras". The Observer (guardian.co.uk). 
  16. ^ "UK Uncut Occupy Tax Dodgers Fortnum and Mason" (Press release). ukuncut.org.uk. 26 Mar 2011. Retrieved 2013-02-05. 
  17. ^ Sunny Hundal (27 March 2011). Occupation of Fortnum & Mason by UKuncut was peaceful. liberalconspiracy.org. Retrieved 2013-02-05. 
  18. ^ "The Queen, Catherine and Camilla visit Fortnum & Mason". BBC News (BBC.com). 1 March 2012. Retrieved 2013-02-05. 

External links [edit]

Media related to Fortnum & Mason at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 51°30′30″N 0°08′18″W / 51.5083°N 0.1384°W / 51.5083; -0.1384

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