Will Harrods take the fall for Al Fayed? Panic hits shop floor as 'barristers get their ducks in a row'

 (The Standard)
(The Standard)

As Storm Bert battered the glowing, Loro Piana-branded façade of Harrods on Saturday night, hundreds of mink-covered elbows battled their way through its doors for safety.

Inside, they were met by a cacophony of contactless cards bleeping tens of thousands of pounds through to Europe’s largest department store — a Wonka’s factory for the global one per cent, where billionaire’s children clamber on £120,000 model Ferraris, tourists squeeze into £8,000 Carolina Herrera sequin gowns in VIP shopping suites, and queues for the ground-floor ornament department snake further than the eye can see.

But ghosts stalk the halls of this 175-year institution — none more so than that of the late Mohamed Al Fayed, its Egyptian owner and chairman from 1985 to 2010, as countless accusations of his rape and brutal sexual assault of female staff continue to leave the nation speechless. There is no denying Al Fayed’s presence inside: his face is still carved into the sphinxes which stare down in the once magnificent, but now bone-chilling, Egyptian Hall.

The late Mohamed Al Fayed has been branded a ‘monster’ (PA)
The late Mohamed Al Fayed has been branded a ‘monster’ (PA)

Insiders from the fashion, food, drink and luxury industries interviewed over the course of this investigation testified to the decades-old rumours of Al Fayed’s crimes, which had long swirled around high society. “It was known he was a randy old sod who tried it on with staff,”; “we knew he was a letch, to be avoided”; “everyone thought he was a wrong ’un,” they have said. All also claim never to have known the details, nor understood the scale, of the abuse which lawyers now say “combined the most horrific parts of Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein”.

Despite foul play first being reported as early as 1995, in a Vanity Fair article, and scores of whistleblowers being sidelined since, it was the BBC’s airing of Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods in September that became the bomb which finally broke through — prompted by the fury felt by survivors who watched Al Fayed’s “funny and gregarious” portrayal in season six of The Crown.

Loro Piana’s Harrods façade this Christmas (Harrods)
Loro Piana’s Harrods façade this Christmas (Harrods)

The documentary’s line of enquiry, “Did the luxury store protect a billionaire predator?”, sent the Qatari state-owned Harrods Ltd executives, who bought one of the UK’s most prized possessions from Al Fayed for £1.5 billion in 2010, into panic. In it, 20 ex-Harrods employees detail how they were sexually assaulted or raped by Al Fayed, who sauntered through his store cherry-picking victims as young as 15, and later attacked them in various locations including his Park Lane apartment, the Ritz Paris, which he also owned, as well as Villa Windsor, the former home of the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, which he spent £12m refurbishing in order to get closer to the royal family — something he ultimately succeeded in doing, both himself, and via his son Dodi, who died in the crash with Princess Diana as they left the Ritz Paris in 1997.

It now transpires the BBC’s bomb was nuclear. Lawyers for the survivors’ group say more than 400 alleged victims of the ex-Harrods owner have now come forward in the store’s MeToo moment, while the worst tales, long sequestered in its seven underground floors, have scandalised the business’ image, its senior management and the British establishment — up to the late Queen Elizabeth II, who was reportedly warned “Al Fayed was a dirty old man who attacked women”.

Lawyers now say lawyers now say Al Fayed “combined the most horrific parts of Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein” (The Sun)
Lawyers now say lawyers now say Al Fayed “combined the most horrific parts of Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein” (The Sun)

On October 31, survivors Jen, Gemma and Lindsay called for a Harrods boycott during a press conference held by the Justice for Harrods Survivors group, as they posed with Harrods totes defaced with black crosses. Lindsay slammed Harrods as “a store that enabled the rape and sexual abuse of so many young and innocent women … So we don’t think that people should be shopping there. We think they should be going elsewhere.” Bruce Drummond KC at New Bailey Chambers, a lawyer for the group, went on to implicate the institution, stating: “That is industrial scale abuse — abuse that could have only been perpetrated with a system that enabled the abuse to happen.” A 24/7 hotline and website harrodssurvivors.com has been set up to document all new reports.

Jen, Lindsay and Gemma called for a boycott on Harrods at a a press conference in October (AP)
Jen, Lindsay and Gemma called for a boycott on Harrods at a a press conference in October (AP)

Can Harrods weather the storm? Certainly more is coming. “We will be commenting on current employees [who could be implicated] in the near future,” a consultant for the survivors group told The London Standard, ominously. “We are just awaiting the barristers to get all of their ducks in a row.”

‘We’re not even past the foothills’

The grim revelations buzz around the store as gossip among staff today. “We all watched the documentary and discussed it in person at Harrods,” says an employee with more than 10 years’ service, who is speaking anonymously because senior managers have banned employees from talking to the press.

“It’s really horrific to hear some of the stuff these women had to go through, especially for those of us that have worked here for a very, very long time. We were only told how wonderful Mr Fayed was,” they added. “We had direct communication from management after [the BBC documentary] was released… they now have a dedicated person who is maybe a bit more aware of sensitive topics like [sexual assault and rape].”

Harrods: once a jewel in London’s crown (Alamy Stock Photo)
Harrods: once a jewel in London’s crown (Alamy Stock Photo)

Setting up a water-tight HR system is part of the Harrods C-suite’s intricate plan to save face — already an improvement from darker, Al Fayed days. Staff working at the store under Qatari management have testified: “It’s a much more of a professional environment now.”

“It does seem this is a very dark moment for the brand,” says Mark Borkowski, publicity expert and author of The Fame Formula. “Mohamed Al Fayed is gone, the store is not owned by him but the current proprietors unfortunately are saddled with all negativity that has been created.

“They’re trying to separate the ghosts of the past from the business of Harrods, and maintain it as one of the prime shopping locations in the world — but that is going to require a very profound crisis strategy. We’re not even past the foothills. These are early days.”

The imminent legal battles will likely spell out how the future months, and years, will unfurl. “It’s now going to be a very complicated story legally, whether or not charges can be pressed by anybody; whether those people are still currently employed by the store; [and] what the purchasers knew or didn’t know,” Borkowski explains. “If Harrods gets dragged through the courts, it isn’t going to be particularly good.”

Michael Jackson and Mohammed Al Fayed in Harrods, 1999 (PA)
Michael Jackson and Mohammed Al Fayed in Harrods, 1999 (PA)

It is no instant death warrant, however. As one business insider puts it: “It’s like Jimmy Savile and the BBC. Savile was very damaging — but how many people actually stopped watching Match of the Day? Probably not that many.”

Borkowski adds, “Audiences seem to have short-term memory loss and long-term amnesia about reputational issues. Look at Michael Jackson. The amount of noise and negativity that was generated around his name [was extraordinary]. But people say, forget the man, we love the music. The question is: has Harrods as a commercial shop got the same power as music to actually resonate with people on an emotional level?”

“They’ve already been compensating people,” says George MacDonald, executive editor of Retail Week, who thinks the brand is bigger than one bad man. “It will be important that Harrods is seen as a business to be doing the right thing.”

Time will tell if current employees in senior positions will soon bear the brunt. Michael Ward, who has run the department store since 2006, has so far maintained his position — but announced last week he would step down as chair of the Walpole luxury goods group, one of a number of positions he has relinquished since the allegations broke. “Michael Ward is a very respected figure, but this is horribly damaging,” one insider says.

“As someone who has worked at Harrods since 2006 — and, therefore, worked for Fayed until the change of ownership in 2010 — I feel it is important to make it clear that I was not aware of his criminality and abuse,” Ward said in a statement. This contrasts with myriad claims, including Tony Leeming’s, a former employee, who told the BBC documentary: “Everyone who said they didn’t know is lying, I’m sorry.”

‘Others could use this to their advantage’

For well over a century, Harrods has been one of London’s greatest tourist attractions; a storied mecca where “one can buy anything” — even lions, as John Rendall and Ace Bourke did in 1969. But even before the horror film revelations about Al Fayed were broadcast, domestic shoppers had declined to a 50:50 split with tourists. On the shop floor, it feels even more skewed to the latter.

John Rendall and Ace Bourke bought a lion from Harrods in 1969 (Handout)
John Rendall and Ace Bourke bought a lion from Harrods in 1969 (Handout)

“All of our great department stores have very different USPs and clientele: there’s a younger shopper at Selfridges; a very monied one at Harrods,” says Natalia Cassel, a veteran fashion PR. She thinks the scandal could be a deadly domestic blow for a shop already on the way out for UK shoppers. “It was the jewel in our crown, and that has kind of gone now. It’s a sad state,” she says.

In fashion, one historic déjà vu is being tipped, as Harvey Nichols is reportedly looking to snare back British luxury shoppers in the wake of Matches Fashion’s fall and other multi-retailer declines. In the Nineties “when Ab Fab was on the telly, Harvey Nicks also stole a really big amount of Harrods’ aura,” Cassel recalls.

“For people that aren’t necessarily aligned with the values that Harrods has come to represent today, maybe there is a chance for them to acquire a larger customer base.” It’s appointment of former Vogue director Kate Phelan, friend of Kate Moss and industry legend, this month looks to play into the strategy.

Harvey Nichols: is a historic déjà vu on the cards? (Getty Images)
Harvey Nichols: is a historic déjà vu on the cards? (Getty Images)

It is difficult at this stage to assess the damage that the scandal will inflict on Harrods as a business, and the last set of accounts show that the store has been trading strongly since it emerged from the traumas of the pandemic. In the year to February 3 total sales worth £2.45 billion were rung through Harrods tills, up 6.7 per cent on the previous 12 months. A hefty dividend of £180m was paid to its sole shareholder, the Qatar Investment Authority. But the report from Harrods Ltd also lists the “high standards of conduct” that directors of the company are expected to uphold, as well as a commitment to support “our employees’ wellbeing and mental health.”

Despite the 14 years that have passed since Fayed sold Harrods, and over a year since he died, those words ring hollow with the streams of women, now empowered in their hundreds, who are banging on the windows for answers.

“Audiences have short-term memory loss and long-term amnesia about reputational issues. Look at Michael Jackson. The amount of noise and negativity that was generated around his name [was extraordinary]. But people say, forget the man, we love the music. The question is: has Harrods got the same power as music to actually resonate with people on an emotional level?”

For more on the Al Fayed scandal, visit standard.co.uk