| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | London, England (1707) |
| Founder(s) | William Fortnum and Hugh Mason |
| Headquarters | London, England, United Kingdom |
| Number of locations | 1 |
| 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, often shortened to just "Fortnum's" is a department store, situated in central London, with two other 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] It is also the location of a celebrated tea shop.
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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, the store was acquired by Canadian businessman W. Garfield Weston, who 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 Beverley Aspinall.
The store underwent a £24 million refurbishment in 2007.[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]
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.[15] This took the form of a mass sit-in. As of 27 March some protesters were still reportedly behind bars.[16]
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.
Main competitors of Fortnum & Mason on the worldwide gourmet and luxury food products scene include Harrods and Harvey Nichols in London, Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate in the north of England, and Mariage Frères, Dammann Frères, Kusmi Tea, Hédiard, and Fauchon in Paris.
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Fortnum_%26_Mason Fortnum & Mason] at Wikimedia Commons
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