Editing Mohamed Al-Fayed (section)

===Ownership of Harrods===
Harrods had entered a steady decline under Hugh Fraser, yet still accounted for half of the House of Fraser group's profits. Determined to restore Harrods' fortunes, Al-Fayed hired Brian Walsh as manager of House of Fraser.<ref>Bower 1998, p. 134.</ref> Walsh created divisions in the company, and more than 200 buyers resigned in the next two years. Following arguments with Al-Fayed, Walsh was fired in October 1987. To calm staff, Al-Fayed distributed envelopes containing £2,000 in cash.<ref>Bower 1998, p. 197.</ref> Following Walsh's departure, Al-Fayed moved his offices onto the fifth floor of Harrods, and took a more hands-on role as chairman of the store.<ref>Bower 1998, p.197.</ref> Walsh was replaced by Michael Ellis-Jones, who was fired after eight weeks.<ref>Bower 1998, p. 204.</ref>
[[File:Harrods (London).jpg|thumb|right|The Harrods Building]]

Christoph Bettermann became the deputy chairman of Harrods in 1990, after having worked for Al-Fayed in Dubai since 1984.<ref name="maureen-orth"/> Bettermann was approached to work in the [[Emirate of Sharjah]], in April 1991, and in June, Bettermann told [[Maureen Orth]], Al-Fayed "showed me a written transcript of a phone conversation between the headhunter and me. He accused me of breaking our trust by talking to these people. I told him, 'If you don't trust me, I resign. I cannot trust you if you bugged my phone.'" Bettermann quit his job at Harrods and went to work for an oil company in Sharjah.<ref name="maureen-orth"/>

Al-Fayed wrote to the ruler of Sharjah, and accused Bettermann of stealing large sums of money.<ref name="maureen-orth"/> Bettermann was cleared by three courts in which Fayed had pressed charges.<ref name="maureen-orth"/>

Al-Fayed delighted in retail theatre, and during his 25 years at Harrods dressed as a Harrods doorman, a boy scout and Father Christmas over the years.<ref name="Bower 1998, p. 236"/> Celebrities were also hired to open the annual Harrods sale, and Harrods sponsored the annual [[Royal Windsor Horse Show]] as it had done since 1982. In 1997 Harrods' sponsorship of the horse show was terminated after Prime Minister [[John Major]] had urged the chairman of the show to find a new sponsor to save Queen [[Elizabeth II]] from association with Al-Fayed.<ref>Bower 1998, p. 449.</ref>

The artist and designer, William Mitchell, was hired by Al-Fayed to create an 'entertaining retail environment'; this resulted in the creation of an Egyptian Hall on the ground floor of Harrods and, following its success, the Egyptian Escalators, which replaced the store's central lifts.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.william-mitchell.com/harrods.htm |title=William George Mitchell - Bio |access-date=1 March 2018 |archive-date=1 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301181757/http://www.william-mitchell.com/harrods.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Mitchell also designed memorials for Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales at Harrods. Al-Fayed claimed to have invested more than £400 million restoring Harrods, with £20 million<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Elliott |first1=Chris |url= |title=Imhotep Today: Egyptianizing architecture |last2=Griffis-Greenberg |first2=Katherine |last3=Lunn |first3=Richard |date=2016-06-16 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-315-42700-3 |editor-last=Humbert |editor-first=Jean-Marcel |series=Encounters with Ancient Egypt |pages=105–121 |language=en |chapter=Chapter 6: Egypt in London — Entertainment and Commerce in the 20th Century Metropolis |id=[[Google Books]] [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Imhotep_Today/SMVmDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA118&printsec=frontcover SMVmDAAAQBAJ] |quote=The escalators and their accompanying Egyptianesque decoration cost nearly £20 million. |quote-page=118}} Replaces edition of this book produced by Institute of Archaeology, University College London under {{ISBN|1-84472-006-3}} in 2003. Originally published by UCL Press in 2003. First published 2011 by Left Coast Press, Inc.</ref> or £75 million<ref>{{Cite news |last=Davey |first=Jenny |date=May 9, 2010 |title=Fayed leaves Harrods — alive |url=<!-- was http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article7120599.ece with title "Mohamed al-Fayed in £1.5bn Harrods sale" --> |work=The Sunday Times |page=3 of Section 3 "BUSINESS" |publication-place=London, England |issue=9688 |id={{Gale|BDGEJS959533574}}}}</ref> being spent on the Egyptian escalator.

In 1991 the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee told the [[Governor of the Bank of England]], [[Robin Leigh-Pemberton]] to order the Fayeds to transfer control of the Harrods Bank to trustees, after they found that the Fayeds were not "fit and proper" to run the bank.<ref>Bower 1998, p.283.</ref> Al-Fayed bought his brother, Saleh, out of his interest in Harrods for £100 million in 1994.<ref>Bower 1998, p.323.</ref> In 1994, before [[House of Fraser]] plc was relisted on the [[London Stock Exchange]], Harrods was moved out of the group so that it could remain under the private ownership of Al-Fayed and his family.<ref name =history>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_71300_en.pdf|title=House of Fraser archive project|accessdate=27 September 2024}}</ref>

====Employee relations====
Al-Fayed was concerned by the loyalty of his staff, and employed two young Greek women as spies, to report on their fellow employees.<ref name="Bower 1998, p. 200">Bower 1998, p. 200.</ref> The telephones of the shop workers' trade union, [[USDAW]] were bugged.<ref name="Bower 1998, p. 200"/> Employees were signed to three-month contracts, and were often fired without agreed compensation, and forced to go to an industrial tribunal.<ref>Bower 1998, p. 201.</ref> Al-Fayed also listened in to his employees, and secretly recorded conversations about their sex lives.<ref name="Bower 1998, p. 236">Bower 1998, p. 236.</ref>

Al-Fayed would customarily fire employees who offended his idea of aesthetics, being most offended by overweight staff or black people.<ref>Bower 1998, p.198.</ref> To avoid hiring black people, Harrods required applicants to submit photographs.<ref name="Bower 1998, p.202">Bower 1998, p.202.</ref> The number of black people employed by Harrods was eventually half the number employed by other London stores.<ref name="Bower 1998, p.202"/>

Francesca Bettermann, Harrods former legal counsel, said of Al-Fayed "He likes a pretty face. He wouldn't hire someone who was ugly. He liked them light-skinned, well educated, English, and young...I remember there was something on the application form that said, 'Your colour, race' I said, 'You're not allowed to put that on the form,' and he said, 'Well, make sure they put proper photos in, then.'" <ref name="maureen-orth"/> In 1994 Harrods settled five racial-discrimination cases brought against the company, and, according to trade union officials, between June and September 1994, 23 of the 28 staff fired were black people, who had held mostly menial jobs.<ref name="maureen-orth"/>

A florist was rejected for employment by Harrods because she was black. The chairman of the subsequent industrial tribunal condemned Harrods's defence as 'malicious and dishonest', stating 'there was an act of blatant racial discrimination...by a very senior personnel officer working in a very large organisation...there was lying and deceit on the part of Harrods personnel to conceal the act of discrimination. There was dishonest testimony by Harrods personnel'.<ref>Bower 1998, p.446.</ref>

====Royal warrants====
In August 2010, in a letter to the ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'', Al-Fayed revealed that he had burnt Harrods's [[Royal Warrant of Appointment (United Kingdom)|royal warrants]], after taking them down in 2000. Harrods had held the Royal warrants since 1910. Describing the warrants as a "curse", Al-Fayed claimed that business had tripled since their removal. The [[Duke of Edinburgh]] removed his warrant in January 2000,<ref name="TelegJun11">{{Cite news|last=Mendick|first=Robert|date=26 June 2011|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/diana/8598896/Anger-as-Mohammed-Fayed-burns-Harrods-royal-warrants.html|title=Anger as Mohamed Fayed burns Harrods royal warrants|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|access-date=22 September 2024|archive-date=13 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140313133229/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/diana/8598896/Anger-as-Mohammed-Fayed-burns-Harrods-royal-warrants.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and the other warrants were removed from Harrods by Al-Fayed in December, pending their five-yearly review. The Duke of Edinburgh had been banned from Harrods by Al-Fayed.<ref name="everything-must">{{Cite news |date=23 December 2000|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1379216/Everything-must-go-as-Harrods-cuts-royal-links.html|title=Everything must go as Harrods cuts royal links|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|first=Robert|last=Hardman}}</ref> Film of the burning of the warrants in 2009 was shown in the final scene of ''Unlawful Killing'', a film funded by Al-Fayed and directed by [[Keith Allen (actor)|Keith Allen]].<ref name="TelegJun11"/>

====Sale of Harrods====
After denials that it was for sale, Harrods was sold to [[Qatar Holdings]], the [[sovereign wealth fund]] of the emirate of [[Qatar]] in May 2010.<ref name="IndependentMay10">{{cite news|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/qatar-the-tiny-gulf-state-that-bought-the-world-1970551.html |title=Qatar, the tiny Gulf state that bought the world. |publisher=Independent |date=10 May 2010 |accessdate=22 September 2024|location=London}}</ref> A spokesman for Al-Fayed said "in reaching the decision to retire, (Al-Fayed) wished to ensure that the legacy and traditions that he has built up in Harrods would be continued." Harrods was sold for £1.5 billion.<ref name="Guardian 2010-05-10">{{cite news|last=Sutherland|first=Ruth|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/may/08/mohammed-al-fayed-harrods-sold-qatar|title=Harrods sold for £1.5bn as Mohamed Al Fayed retires|date=8 May 2010|work=[[The Guardian]]|accessdate=22 September 2024}}</ref>

Al-Fayed later said that he decided to sell Harrods following the difficulty in getting his [[dividend]] approved by the trustee of the Harrods pension fund. Fayed said "I'm here every day, I can't take my profit because I have to take a permission of those bloody idiots...I say is this right? Is this logic? Somebody like me? I run a business and I need to take bloody fucking trustee's permission to take my profit".<ref name="ESMay10">{{cite news |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/mohamed-fayed-why-i-sold-harrods-6473745.html |title=Mohammed Fayed: Why I Sold Harrods |first=Sam |last=Leith |newspaper=[[Evening Standard]] |date=26 May 2010 |access-date=22 September 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100701144627/http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23838358-a-four-letter-farewell-from-mohammed-fayed.do|archive-date=1 July 2010}}</ref> Al-Fayed was appointed honorary chairman of Harrods, for six months.<ref name="ESMay10" />
[[File:Harrods London (1).jpg|thumb|The Brompton Road frontage of [[Harrods]] in 2022]]