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Fortnum & Mason is the only department store whose core economic engine is food and drink, generating nearly two-thirds of revenue. Located on London’s Piccadilly, the store is 6,000 square metres and employs around 1,000 staff. It currently holds two royal warrants granted by King Charles III and Queen Camilla.i

As for other department stores, such as Galeries Lafayette, Fortnum & Mason is privately owned. Positioned as a heritage luxury department store with a single cultural landmark flagship widely regarded as a tourist attraction, Fortnum & Mason is characterised by a predominance of full-price luxury merchandise and great international brand awareness, attracting affluent travellers.

Over three centuries, the grocer-turned-icon, still trading under the same turquoise colour, has converted from supplying the Crown into profitable retail ventures. Fortnum & Mason offers a blueprint of how heritage meets innovation, how experience can protect against footfall volatility and how operational efficiency enhances brand storytelling.

The origins of a retail institution

The genesis of a brand: from household waste to high-end retail

Fortnum & Mason started in 1707, when William Fortnum, then a Queen Anne’s footman, joined forces with his landlord, the St James’s shopkeeper Hugh Mason. Fortnum’s habit of reselling the royal household’s half-burned candles provided initial funding, and the two partners opened a grocery store in St James’s Market. From this first venture, Fortnum & Mason positioned itself at the intersection of refined taste and commercial flair. By the middle of the seventeenth century, the store had become an unofficial provisioner to royal and aristocratic customers as well as London’s growing mercantile class.

By 1761, Charles Fortnum, grandson of William, entered Queen Charlotte’s service, reinforcing the family’s court connection. Besides bringing cachet, the link to the Crown guaranteed steady and early success. Then, three pillars would remain at the core of the store's business success for centuries: proximity to political power, mastery of import logistics through Britain’s expanding empire, and relentless product novelty, which turned necessities (such as tea, candles, and preserves) into desirable luxuries.

The nineteenth century was an era of growth. During the Napoleonic Wars, the store supplied British officers with dried fruit, spices, and preserves, establishing a reputation for reliability. Queen Victoria famously ordered bottled beef tea for Florence Nightingale’s War hospitals, reinforcing the brand in the national imagination as purveyor of comfort in adversity. These high-profile adventures generated press coverage that no advertising budget could match.

At that time, Fortnum & Mason also invented, or at least popularised, the luxury hamper, an elegant wicker basket packed with provisions for railway journeys and country-house weekends. Hampers became both a revenue stream and a portable marketing billboard for the store. The Victorian decades saw the shop rebuilt on a grand Neo-Georgian scale, with large windows and gas lighting, transforming displays and inviting shoppers to linger.

Modern times: wars, prosperity and change in ownership

In the twentieth century, the two world wars forced Fortnum & Mason to adapt. During World War I, the company provided comfort parcels for officers, and in World War II, it produced Service Chocolate, a calorie-dense bar in a bright pink wrapper which was requisitioned by the Ministry of Food. The emphasis on quality within constraint reinforced, yet again, Fortnum & Mason’s as a purveyor of comfort in adversity.

Post-war austerity gave way to renewed prosperity. In 1951, Canadian businessman W. Garfield Weston acquired Fortnum & Mason, bringing capital for modernisation while retaining the store’s private company agility. Installed in 1964 over the Piccadilly entrance, the iconic four-ton clock has become a tourist landmark. Each hour, automated figures of Fortnum and Mason characters bow to one another, accompanied by chimes. During the 1960s and 1980s, Fortnum & Mason cautiously expanded into other categories, such as fragrances and fine jewellery. Yet food and beverage remained the most significant source of revenue, helping the business weather the department store’s downturn of the past decades.

Now, Fortnum & Mason operates under Wittington Investments, which is controlled by the Weston family. Besides Fortnum & Mason, the company is famous for owning Selfridges until 2021. They now own Heal’s (upmarket furniture chain), real estate, various private equity and property holdings. Additionally, Wittington Investments holds a majority stake in Associated British Foods (ABF), a FTSE 100 conglomerate that owns Primark, Twinings, and British Sugar.

A snapshot of the business: profitability rooted in purpose

Appointed by Wittington Investments in 2020, CEO Tom Athron, who spent six years as Waitrose’s CFO, developed a storytelling, hospitality, and sustainability strategy. Financial resilience has been notable. FY2022 declared turnover was £187 million, returning to a £6,1 million profitability post-Covid. In FY2023, declared revenue was up 11.9 % to £208.6 million, and gross margin improved to 44.4 %. Pre-tax profit rose to £9.3 million in FY 2024 on declared sales of £228 million. Also, the company saw a 20% increase in its wholesale business. Finally, with shipment available in over 120 countries, online sales are now accounting for 36 % of turnover by FY2024.

More specifically, 63% of the turnover is generated from food and drink, including teas, biscuits, preserves, speciality groceries, spirits and wines. The home, beauty and lifestyle categories account for 18%, encompassing tableware, candles, fragrance, accessories and leather goods. Hospitality and experiences generate 9 % of the turnover and include restaurants, masterclasses and events. Last but not least, the famous hampers represent approximately 10 % of sales, with a 10 % YoY volume growth at Christmas 2024. The latter decades saw Fortnum & Mason’s hampers go global, boosted by the rise of air travel and corporate gifting. International luxury ingredients, such as Iranian caviar and Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, were added to British heritage products, while foie gras was discontinued due to animal welfare concerns. Same-day London delivery and temperature-controlled shipping are available to the 200+ hamper SKUs.

With entry prices such as £5.95 for preserves and £6.95 for tea bags, driving conversion and souvenir appeal, Fortnum & Mason sits at the intersection of everyday luxury and British heritage, mainly attracting three types of customers: affluent international tourists, who represented 40 % of Piccadilly footfall in peak Summer 2024, domestic treat seekers, who are primarily Millennials and GenX Londoners, and finally corporate clients leveraging hampers for softpower gifting.

Fortnum & Mason’s current era: a modern luxury model rooted in legacy

Store organisation: the experiential pivot

To mark its 300th anniversary, the Piccadilly flagship underwent a £24 million refurbishment, reopening in 2007 with expanded hospitality spaces and restored Georgian facades. The investment accelerated a strategic pivot from retail-only to a combination of retail and experiences with restaurants, cookery masterclasses, and immersive window theatre becoming key traffic drivers at a time when footfall on traditional high streets was declining.

With F&B options on four floors out of six, the -1 floor is home to the food hall and the wine cellar. It also features a rather dark wine bar and click-and-collect service. Food-to-go options and the Lower Ground coffee-to-go kiosk are available on this floor to capture a greater share of the local weekday trade. The ground floor, the ‘pièce de résistance’ of the store, is bustling and offers Fortnum & Mason's core products (tea, marmalades, coffee, chocolates, sweets, biscuits and patisserie). Cash desks are positioned on this floor, with entry-price items displayed along the queuing journey. Finally, the 45 Jermyn St. fancy restaurant opens from breakfast to dinner.  The first floor is dedicated to teaware, stationery, accessories, and picnic equipment. The busy The Parlour restaurant is specialised in ice cream. Gift wrapping is available on this floor. The second floor seems to be designed for the female clientele. It offers a large beauty section and a significant niche fragrances section. Unlike the other floors, which primarily sell Fortnum’s own brand products, this floor offers a selection of luxury international brands. The space is complemented by women’s hats and scarves, loungewear and jewellery. Personal shopping services and a beauty room are positioned on this floor. The famous hampers are available on the third floor, offering a service that allows customers to design their own hampers. The Food & Drink Studio occupies a significant section of the floor. When there are no cooking classes, chefs are preparing pastries or pasta, offering a food spectacle to shoppers. A cook shop and a book shop complete the floor, which feels somewhat empty. The 3’6 bar is an intimate, speakeasy-like cocktail bar. Finally, the fourth floor is home to The Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon, an homage to the British tradition of afternoon tea. Queen Elizabeth II formally opened the room in 2012, renewing the special bond between the store and the Crown.

Floors are accessible through elevators and two different staircases, including a double-helix one. While the ground floor is packed with merchandise and customers filling their baskets with tea boxes and sweets, the other floors are airy and sometimes feel empty. During a weekday visit, the upper floors were relatively empty, with only a few customers shopping. Only the ground floor and the restaurants were busy. Some parts of the upper floors could be enhanced with additional products to recreate the ground floor’s product abundance, clearly inviting a food shopping spree.

Retail expansion with intention: scarcity as an asset

Additionally, Fortnum & Mason has developed an international presence over the years, always controlling scarcity. Similarly to Harrods, they demonstrate deliberate resistance to overextension, preserving the brand mystique and ethos. As a result, in addition to dozens of wholesale stockists, they are adopting a selective retail presence:

• A store at St Pancras International rail station opened in 2013, with click-and-collect services.
• A bar and a store at Heathrow International Airport opened in 2014, targeting premium international travellers.
• A store, bar and restaurant at the London’s Royal Exchange boutique opened in 2018.
• A store and restaurant launched in 2019 at K11 Musea in Hong Kong as the first overseas venture, designed as a brand embassy for Asian luxury consumers.

In June 2025, the company announced a regional UK expansion project beyond London, aimed at addressing the surge in demand for its luxury teas, biscuits and jam. While more than one additional store could open, they are currently exploring sites with iconic architecture, continuing to resist a mass rollout.

From legacy to leadership: Fortnum & Mason’s innovation agenda

Tech upgrades and operational efficiency

With a 7% decline in online sales during Christmas 2024 due to issues with hamper deliveries, e-commerce has been a challenge at Fortnum & Mason. The retailer has optimised its supply chain by consolidating its four distribution centres into one, increasing its e-commerce capabilities. While the situation is improving, demand still exceeds their delivery slot capabilities. This is why the company deliberately limits the number of orders, making sure they can fulfil them while maintaining excellent service.

Fortnum & Mason shows great dynamism in optimising operations to improve productivity. From 2024, the company began rolling out an AI-powered forecasting and merchandising system, developed by Relex, across its category buying teams, which were previously using spreadsheets. In-store, they successfully reduced the number of steps in the checkout process, resulting in a five-second decrease in transaction time per customer.

In parallel, in March 2025, Fortnum & Mason entered the on-demand delivery market. They partner with premium groceries delivery platform Zapp to offer 24/7 60-minute delivery across London. No longer seen as a Christmas-focused business, this initiative marks a significant milestone in terms of customer centricity and service for Fortnum & Mason as they claim to be the first of London's high-end stores to partner with an on-demand delivery service.

Subscription service: repositioning the brand beyond Christmas through convenience

Increasingly focused on customer centricity and convenience, Fortnum & Mason unveiled a three-tier subscription delivery service in 2024:

• At £100 annually, the Tea Post subscription offers customers a year’s supply of monthly refills of a choice of Fortnum’s tea blends. Subscribers also receive a personalised china mug, tin and strainer.
• The Biscuit Post, which costs £20 a month, offers refills of the Toffolossus, Chocolossus or Gingerlossus biscuits, available on either three-month, six-month or 12-month subscriptions.
• The third subscription, called the Teatime Dispatch, offers a selection of tea and biscuits, as well as a choice of jams, for £75 a month.

From customer to member: building a brand-led community

In 2025, Fortnum & Mason took another step toward emphasising customer relationships. They launched Friends of Fortnum’s paid membership programme offering exclusive events and early access to product drops. The scheme costs £100 per year. Members will receive a curated welcome gift, seasonal gifts and free next-day UK delivery on all orders over £25. Subscribers will also be able to access tickets for exclusive events, along with other small extras, when shopping in-store or dining at its restaurants. The department store developed the programme in direct response to customer feedback seeking a closer connection to the Fortnum & Mason brand. Despite discreet in-store advertising, the early stages of the launch are said to be very positive. Their re-platformed CRM, powered by SAP Emarsys, enables behavioural segmentation and provides first-party data capture.

Finally, marketing activations have been launched through noteworthy partnerships. They have recently partnered with actor and cooking expert Stanley Tucci for a cookware range and with multi-layered cake brand Get Baked, which has drawn younger crowds to the store thanks to its success on TikTok.

With food and beverage at its core, Fortnum & Mason stands apart as a department store. Turning its historic specialisation into a competitive advantage, the company’s food-centric heritage and royal cachet sustain its cultural relevance. Its deliberate emphasis on experience over expansion, high-margin own-label assortments, and curated internationalisation reflects a relevant approach to luxury retail. Additionally, the company demonstrates that category focus, rather than scale, can define global luxury success.

The future of Fortnum & Mason holds uncertainties, though. Achieving less than £250 million annually, the centuries-old business is real but narrow. Concentration in one flagship, UK tourist tax policy, and high exposure to raw material inflation are threats to the company.

Finally, the consequences of climate change may reveal a more fragile business than the brand aura suggests. Driven by heatwaves and floods, Darjeeling tea output fell to a 170-year low of less than 6 million kg in 2024, and Assam tea production dropped 7.8%, two key products at Fortnum & Mason. While food and drink have always been its core business and a success enabler, this shows how Fortnum & Mason's heavy dependence on certain products could transform into a threat to its future—a cautionary tale to keep in mind.

Credits: IADS (Christine Montard)