Major department store scraps beloved food service

Harvey Nichols was once the place every celebrity wanted to be seen in, especially after it got cult status on hit BBC show Absolutely Fabulous, but now bosses are trying to halt the decline by cutting one of its most luxurious departments

It was once Patsy and Eddie’s favourite place to shop, but today things aren’t going quite so fabulously for Harvey Nichols. The famed department store, a byword for all things luxury and which was catapulted to cult status thanks to the hit BBC sitcom starring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, has long lost its fizz.

And now in a move which would have the Ab Fab duo choking on their champers, ‘Harvey Nicks’ has decided to stop selling food, meaning the end to its once celebrated food halls and hampers. It is part of an attempt to push the once iconic store back into the black, after posting losses of £34million last year.

Harvey Nichols’ new chief executive Julia Goddard says the move to shut down its own-brand food products, with the the loss of 70 jobs, is an attempt to revive the flagging store’s fortunes by focusing on fashion and beauty.

But some wonder if it will spell the end for the one-time jewel in London’s shopping scene, which now has stores in six other British cities, including Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Bristol – all of which will lose their famous food halls.

The luxury retailer has now lost almost £100million since it last made a pre-tax profit in 2019, after it was first hit by Covid, then a shift towards online shopping. While many still turn to the iconic shop for occasional special gifts and Christmas presents, bosses know that won’t hold off what seems like an unstoppable decline.

In any case, it’s another sad chapter in the story of the world famous store, which started life as a humble linen shop in a terraced house on the corner of Knightsbridge and Sloane Square in London in 1831.

Four years later founder Benjamin Harvey expanded the business to the shop next door, and continued to take over neighbouring houses until it occupied an entire block.

One of his employees, James Nichols, married Harvey’s niece, and when he died he took over the business, renaming it Harvey Nichols & Co. The buildings were demolished in 1889 to build the illustrious department store still standing today.

In 1920 it was bought by Debenhams and became its flagship store, becoming a magnet for the rich and famous. Fans including a young Lady Diana and her fellow Sloane Rangers, who flocked there to buy pretty floral skirts, white lacy blouses and pearls.

She continued to visit as princess, when the store would sometimes close entirely during her visits, allowing her to shop or eat in the restaurant undisturbed.

The Burton Group became the new owners in 1985, when chairman Sir Ralph Halpern promised to make it the best fashion store in the world. Little did he know, however, that his vision would come about due to a new irreverent BBC comedy that gloried in glamorous women behaving badly. One of the actresses, Joanna Lumley, had never done comedy before.

By the early 1990s, after the store was bought by business tycoon Sir Dickson Poon, fashion designer Mary Portas was brought in as creative director at the department store, charged with changing its image and attracting a younger clientele.

It was her idea to give clothes to the producers of Absolutely Fabulous in exchange for a reference or two in the script.

Mary recalled how it came about: “I was on a shoot and someone was talking about Jennifer Saunders making this TV show so I called her. We met and I said ‘listen, I will work with you and give you access to all the brands and I’ll get you access to the designers if you just name check us as the only shop. That could have fallen flat on its face if that show hadn’t taken off and been really clever. ‘It was all about making consumers want to be associated with something so if I buy Harvey Nichols. therefore I’m cool.”

Rather than getting just a few name checks, the store became a central theme of the sitcom and a hilarious obsession of Patsy and Eddie’s, who often affectionately referred to as ‘Harvey Nicks’. In one memorable exchange, when Eddie’s daughter Saffy asks her, ‘So what does a fashion director actually do?’ she replies ‘Oh darling, she gets a 50% discount at Harvey Nichols’.

With the massive success of Ab Fab, one of the BBC’s biggest hits around the world and sold globally to 240 countries, the store soon became synonymous with everything high-end and luxe.

At the same time, Mary brought in artists to create eye-catching window displays, opened the Fifth Floor bar during shopping hours and organised catwalk shows for up-and-coming designers. The fortunes of the store – which had been looking glum – were reversed, and Mary, who also gained a new career as TV retail makeover guru, became known as Queen of Shops.

For a while Harvey Nicks was the place everyone wanted to be seen. Its customer magazine featured interviews with Hollywood stars like Kate Winslet and Jerry Hall, while the store played host to star-studded fashion parties. Princess Diana was a regular visitor, who would often reserve a table at the restaurant, while it was also a regular haunt for supermodels Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford.

Their success even inspired other stores like Selfridges. Peter Williams, a senior executive at Selfridges in the 1990s, remembered: “Harvey Nicks did extremely well in the ‘Ab Fab’ era. They were early into ‘edgy’ fashion and we were really behind the pace. We looked at what they were doing and felt it was right for Selfridges, too.”

But a decade later the department store once at the forefront of fashion was struggling to stay relevant. Harvey Nichols was seen as being too focused on ‘fashion sheep’ where customers feel pressured to follow trends, whereas times had changed with shoppers looking to express their own individuality.

And a major refurbishment of the Knightsbridge flagship store, aimed at competing with Harrods, also led to a slump in profits as large parts of the store and key entrances were closed.

By the end 2013 the business posted a significant loss of £6.7million. That same year Mary Portas said she wouldn’t shop at Harvey Nichols. “‘I just think it’s lost that edge. It was the innovator at a time when Selfridges [were behind] and I think now they’ve taken over. I wouldn’t go there to see who the new designers are,” she said.

The store’s woes continued, leading to the resignation of CEO Manju Malhotra reportedly due to a dispute own Poon over strategy.

New chief executive Julia Goddard, who was appointed last year, now believes cutting the chain’s luxury food offerings is the way forward. In March she lamented that shoppers had “forgotten about Harry Nichols” and wanted to re-establish the brand as a “British icon and flagship destination.”

But without the oysters and champagne, many wonder if the move is actually the last nail in Harvey Nics’ coffin.