Fortnum & Mason - History

History

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. The store began to stock speciality items, namely ready-to-eat luxury meals such as fresh poultry or game served in aspic jelly.

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.

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.

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.

In April 1951, the store was acquired by Canadian businessman W. Garfield Weston, who became its chairman following a boardroom coup. 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.

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 in September 2011 to StopFortnumAndMasonFoieGrasCruelty.com in an effort to push the campaign through to completion. Celebrities supporting the campaign include Sir Roger Moore, Owain Yeoman, Tamara Ecclestone, Bill Oddie and Twiggy. Fortnum & Mason has recently been reprimanded by Westminster Trading Standards for misleading customers about its animal welfare standards. As a result, the grocer has had to change its corporate social responsibility document to admit that only UK suppliers are required to adhere to the welfare standards set out in its policy.

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. This took the form of a mass sit-in. As of 27 March some protesters were still reportedly behind bars. 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.