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| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1707; 318 years ago (1707) |
| Founders | William Fortnum Hugh Mason |
| Headquarters | |
Number of locations | 5 (2019)[1] |
Area served | United Kingdom Hong Kong Worldwide (via stockists and online) |
Key people |
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| Products | Luxury goods |
Number of employees | 708 (2016)[2] |
| Parent | Wittington Investments |
| Website | www |
Fortnum & Mason plc (colloquially often shortened to justFortnum's) is anupmarketdepartment store inLondon, England. The main store is located at 181Piccadilly in theSt James's area of London, where it was established in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason. There are additional stores atThe Royal Exchange,St Pancras railway station,Canary Wharf andHeathrow Airport in Greater London, atVictoria Dockside in Hong Kong, as well as various stockists worldwide. Fortnum & Mason is privately owned byWittington Investments Limited.[3]
Founded as a grocery store, Fortnum's reputation was built on supplying high quality food, and it saw rapid growth throughout the Victorian era. Although Fortnum's developed into a department store, it continues to focus on stocking a variety of exotic and speciality food along with 'basic' provisions. It is known for its food hampers.[4]
The main store has since opened several other departments, such as the gentlemen's department on the first floor. It also contains a tea shop and several restaurants.
William Fortnum was afootman in thehousehold ofQueen Anne. The royal family's insistence on having new candles every night resulted in large amounts of half-used wax, which Fortnum promptly resold. Fortnum also had a side business as a grocer. He convinced his landlord, Hugh Mason, to be his associate, and they founded the first Fortnum & Mason store in Mason's small shop at St James's Market in 1707. In 1761, William Fortnum's grandson Charles went into the service ofQueen Charlotte, and the connection with the royal court led to an increase in business. Fortnum & Mason claims to have invented theScotch egg, in 1738.[5][6] The store began to stock speciality items, namely ready-to-eat luxury meals such as poultry orgame served inaspic jelly.[7]
During theNapoleonic Wars, the emporium supplieddried fruit, spices and otherpreserves to Britishofficers. In theVictorian era, it was frequently called upon to provide food for prestigious court functions.Queen Victoria sent shipments of Fortnum & Mason's concentratedbeef tea toFlorence Nightingale's hospitals during theCrimean War.[8]
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Charles Drury Edward Fortnum (1820–1899), of the family, was a distinguished art collector and a Trustee of theBritish Museum, to which he donated his collection of Islamicceramics.[9]
In 1886, after having bought the entire stock of five cases of a new product made byH. J. Heinz, Fortnum & Mason became the first store in Britain to stock tins ofbaked beans.[8]
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The shop at 181–184 Piccadilly was rebuilt between 1926 and 1927 to a Neo-Georgian design by the architectsWimperis, Simpson and Guthrie. The building also incorporates 22–27 Duke Street and 42–45 Jermyn Street.[10]
In April 1951, the Canadian businessmanW. Garfield Weston acquired the store and became its chairman following aboardroom coup.[11] 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 and18th-century style music playing in the background. The chimes were incorporated intoJonathan Dove's orchestral adaptation ofZeb Soanes' children's bookGaspard's Foxtrot, which depicts the clock and its figures as illustrated byJames Mayhew. Since Garfield Weston's death in 1978, the store has been run by two of his granddaughters,Jana Khayat andKate Hobhouse. The Chief Executive Officer is Tom Athron, who joined the business in December 2020.
The store underwent a £24 million refurbishment in 2007 as part of its tercentenary celebrations.[12]
In March 2012, QueenElizabeth II,Camilla (then Duchess of Cornwall) andCatherine (then Duchess of Cambridge) made their first official joint visit to Fortnum & Mason. During this visit, they were each presented with their own personalised hampers.[14] The Queen opened theDiamond Jubilee Tea Salon on the fourth floor.
In November 2013, the company's first additional store was opened atSt Pancras International station.[15] The retailer has since opened stores and restaurants atHeathrow Terminal 5 (in 2014) and atThe Royal Exchange (in 2018).
Fortnum & Mason opened its first standalone store outside Britain inDubai on 21 March 2014.
On 4 April 2019, it was announced that Fortnum & Mason would open aHong Kong store atK11 Musea in September 2019. The 7,000 square-foot space features a retail store and restaurant.[16]
Fortnum & Mason runs an annual food and drinks awards scheme.[17] According to the company's former CEO Ewan Venters, the awards recognise ‘the pinnacle of high achievement in food and drink across the media’. The awards celebrate writers, publishers, presenters, image-makers and personalities working in the food and drink industry.
The 2018 awards ceremony was hosted byClaudia Winkleman and winners includedNadiya Hussain,Nigel Slater andJay Rayner.[17]
Fortnum & Mason holds threeroyal warrants, granted byQueen Elizabeth II,King Charles III andQueen Camilla.[18][19]
Their first royal warrant was granted in 1910 byQueen Alexandra. Later Royal Warrants were granted to Fortnum & Mason byKing George V, though Fortnum & Mason temporarily lost their warrant for his son,King George VI, in 1948, due to post war rationing of the time. The warrant for King George VI was restored in 1951.[18]
Later, King George VI and his consort Queen Elizabeth, known asThe Queen Mother after the death of King George VI in 1952, both granted Fortnum & Mason Royal Warrants.[18]
In 2022, Fortnum & Mason was a sponsor of thePlatinum Pudding Competition, as part of the official celebrations of thePlatinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.[20][21][22]
Fortnum & Mason was also one of sixteen partners of thePlatinum Jubilee Pageant, held on 5 June 2022.[20][23]
In November 2010, animal rights groupPETA UK began a campaign against Fortnum & Mason's sale offoie gras, citing the cruelty in the production process. The group regularly held demonstrations involving celebrities, activists and volunteers outside the store. Celebrities supporting the campaign includedGeezer Butler,Sir Roger Moore,[24]Owain Yeoman,[25]Tamara Ecclestone,[26]Bill Oddie,[27]Twiggy[28] andMorrissey.[29] In 2011, Fortnum & Mason was reprimanded by Westminster Trading Standards for misleading customers about its animal welfare standards.[30] As a result, the grocer changed its corporate social responsibility document to state that only UK suppliers are required to adhere to its welfare standards. In December 2020, Fortnum & Mason ceased sale of foie gras in favour of an alternative seen as more ethical, foie royale.
On 26 March 2011, Fortnum & Mason was targeted by the groupUK Uncut, who broke off from the main2011 anti-cuts protest march to target thetax avoidance policies of Associated British Foods, which, like Fortnum & Mason, is owned byWittington Investments.[31] This took the form of a masssit-in, with some 138 UK Uncut protesters arrested.[32]
In November 2024 the company caused controversy by not including Paralympians in an after party event, after a reception was held at Buckingham Palace for all Olympic athletes. Many disabled athletes spoke up about how this is a common form of disability exclusion where non disabled athletes are treated better than others.[33]
Fortnum's history of offering a wide variety of foodstuffs is referenced in the 1960Hammer Studios film,The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll. Set in 1870s London, Mr Hyde quips regarding a lively and risqué London nightspot, "Rather like Fortnum & Mason ... you can buy anything here." In the 2022 filmLiving (a re-make of theAkira Kurosawa classicIkiru), the stricken protagonist takes his young companion to lunch at the Fortnum lunchroom, to her astonishment.
InAlan Bennett's playThe Madness of George III (also made intoa 1994 film), set in the late 1780s, a footman named Fortnum leaves in a huff to start a "provision merchant's in Piccadilly." This is an anachronistic reference to the founding of the store, as William Fortnum's position as a footman in the royal household was many decades earlier, in the reign of Queen Anne.
In Anthony Trollope's novelThe Claverings, Sir Hugh Clavering disdains to trust Fortnum & Mason to provision his yachting trip to Norway: "He was not a man to trust any Fortnum or any Mason as to the excellence of the article to be supplied, or as to the price."
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