Harrods Group (Holding) Limited, doing business as the Harrods Group, is a British holding company that owns the

Harrods Harrods is a Listed building, Grade II listed luxury department store on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It was designed by C. W. Stephens for Charles Digby Harrod, and opened in 1905; it replaced the first store on the ground ...

luxury

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

Knightsbridge Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End of London, West End. ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. The original Harrods store was founded in 1849 by Charles Henry Harrod, and the first holding company, Harrod's Stores Limited, was formed and listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

in 1889. It was acquired by and merged into the

House of Fraser House of Fraser (rebranding to Frasers) is a British department store chain with 23 locations across the United Kingdom and 2 in Ireland, part of Frasers Group. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891, it ...

in 1959, which itself was acquired by the Fayed brothers and became a privately held company in 1985. When the House of Fraser was relisted on the stock exchange, the Harrods business was split off to remain privately held in 1994. The present-day Harrods Group was established by the Fayed brothers in 2006. It was sold to the

Qatar Investment Authority The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA; ) is Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. The QIA was founded by the State of Qatar in 2005 to strengthen the country's economy by diversifying into new asset classes. In November 2024, the QIA had an estimated $526 ...

, the

sovereign wealth fund A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), or sovereign investment fund, is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, Bond (finance), bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

, in 2010. The Harrods Group is headquartered in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

, London. Beyond the flagship department store, it has operated Harrods-branded specialty shops in the United Kingdom, airports, and cruise ships. It has also applied the brand name to non-retail enterprises including Harrods Estates and Harrods Aviation.

History

Harrods opened its first and only foreign branch in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, Argentina in 1914. It became independent of the British shop in the late 1940s, but continued to trade under the Harrods name, for many years the only Harrods outside Britain. The Harrods Furniture Depository was also built in Barnes, near

Hammersmith Bridge Hammersmith Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the River Thames in west London. It links the southern part of Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the north side of the river, with Barnes in the London Boroug ...

in 1914. A Harrods shop opened on board the RMS ''Queen Mary'' in

Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

, California in 1990, which was then owned by the

Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

. That year, it gave right to Duty Free International for a licence to operate a Harrods Signature Shop at

Toronto Pearson International Airport Toronto Pearson International Airport is an international airport located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the main airport serving Toronto, its metropolitan area, and the surrounding region known as the Golden Horseshoe. Pearson is the ...

's Terminal 3 (closed shortly after) In 1997, an English court issued an injunction to restrain the Buenos Aires Harrods store from trading under the Harrods name, but the House of Lords in 1998 dismissed Fayed's lawsuit. The following year, the store in Buenos Aires closed after racking up large amounts of debt. There had been offers to buy the store from

Falabella The Falabella is an Argentine list of horse breeds, breed of small horse. It is among the smallest of horse breeds, with a height at the withers in the range .. History The horses of South America descend from Andalusian horse, Andalusian and ...

El Corte Inglés El Corte Inglés S.A. is a Spanish department store chain founded in 1940 by Ramón Areces and César Rodríguez. It is the last such remaining in Spain and Portugal, and has been a member of the International Association of Department Stores s ...

Printemps Printemps is a French luxury department store chain founded in 1865, which focuses on beauty, lifestyle, fashion and accessories. The flagship store "le Printemps Haussmann" is located on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Pari ...

and more but Atilio Gilbertoni the owner of Harrods in Buenos Aires did not accept the offers as he wanted to keep the controlling stake in the brand. A Harrods shop opened on board the ''

Queen Elizabeth 2 ''Queen Elizabeth 2'' (''QE2'') is a retired British ocean liner. Built for the Cunard Line, the ship was operated as a transatlantic liner and cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. She was laid up until converted into a floating hotel, operating sin ...

'', owned by the

Cunard Line The Cunard Line ( ) is a British shipping and an international cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its four ships have been r ...

, in 2000. The Harrods "102" shop opens opposite the main shop in Brompton Road in 2006, and featured concessions like

Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans ch ...

and

Yo! Sushi YO! Sushi (sometimes shortened to just YO!) is a chain of Kiosk, kiosks and conveyor belt sushi restaurants, principally in the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Australia. History YO! Sushi was fo ...

, as well as florists, a herbalist, a masseur, and an oxygen spa; itclosed in 2013. A location at

Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdo ...

( Terminal 5) opened in 2008. The company looked at the possibility of expanding to China and opening a new shop in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

in 2010. Managing director Michael Ward stated that "there are other areas of the world where we could operate profitably." The number of Chinese shoppers visiting Harrods was increasing, and the average spent by a Chinese shopper was three times that of any other nationality. Harrods Bank, having operated since 1893, was sold to

Tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which two or more animals, machines, or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. ''Tandem'' can also be used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects w ...

and rebranded to Tandem Bank in 2017. After lockdowns and restriction during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Harrods made a loss of £68 million in 2020, reduced staff numbers, paid no dividend to its owners and said that no dividend was likely for another two years, and faced a strike by dozens of restaurant workers.

Department store acquisitions

Retail enterprises

Harrods store locations

H Beauty

H Beauty is a beauty store chain that operates exclusively outside of London city limits, with locations spanning between and of selling space. It is designed to gain market share beyond the reach of the flagship Harrods store, and captilize on the lack of

Sephora Sephora is a French multinational retailer of personal care and beauty products, offering nearly 340 brands alongside its own private label, the Sephora Collection. Its product range includes cosmetics, skincare, fragrance, nail color, beauty t ...

and

Ulta Beauty Ulta Beauty, Inc., formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and before 2000 as Ulta3, is an American chain of cosmetic stores headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Ulta Beauty carries both high- and low-end cosmetics, fragra ...

in the UK. The first location opened at the

Lakeside Shopping Centre Lakeside Shopping Centre (commonly referred to as Lakeside) is a large Out-of-town shopping centres in the United Kingdom, out-of-town shopping mall, shopping centre located in West Thurrock, Essex just beyond the eastern boundary of Greater Lon ...

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Essex, England. It lies on the north bank of the River ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

in September 2020, with four subsequent stores operating .

Non-retail enterprises

Notes

References

{{ref list Retail companies based in London Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Department stores of the United Kingdom House of Fraser British royal warrant holders Shops in London 2006 establishments in England Food halls Retail companies established in 2006 British companies established in 2006