Harrods

Harrods was founded in 1834 in London by Charles Henry Harrod as a small wholesale grocery shop in Stepney, before relocating to the present Knightsbridge site in 1849 and gradually expanding into the seven-floor department store building that has anchored the brand for 175 years. The brand's foundational thesis was singular: provide every conceivable item of luxury inventory to the British and international upper class, under one roof, with the motto 'Omnia Omnibus Ubique' (All Things, for All People, Everywhere). The Harrods vocabulary settled around several specific things: the seven-floor flagship building (designed in Edwardian Baroque by Charles William Stephens, opened 1905), the iconic Harrods Food Halls with their tiled-art-nouveau ceilings, the Harrods own-brand merchandise programme (Christmas hampers, the Harrods bear, the green-and-gold Harrods carrier bag), and a department-store buyer list that ranges from every major luxury brand (LVMH, Kering, Richemont, Chanel, Hermès) through to high-tier streetwear (Off-White, Palm Angels, A-Cold-Wall*) and contemporary independent designers. The Harrods Buy-Side annual event programme anchors the brand calendar. Harrods is owned by Qatar Holding (the Qatari Investment Authority subsidiary that acquired the store from Mohamed Al-Fayed in 2010 for approximately £1.5B). The store operates exclusively from the Knightsbridge flagship plus an extensive Harrods e-commerce platform, the Harrods Buy-Side investment platform, and concession spaces in Doha, Beijing, and Shanghai. The Brompton Road flagship building, which spans approximately 1.1 million square feet across seven retail floors, is one of the most-visited department store buildings in the world.