The Times - UK (2022-01-01)

the times | Saturday January 1 2022 53

The ManifestoBusiness

A

fter dreaming of becoming
boss of Fortnum & Mason
for years, Tom Athron’s
first day in the post was
unforgettable — but not
for the reasons he might have wanted.
As he opened the doors of the
Piccadilly store in January he was
greeted with the news that 60 per
cent of his retail team were sick or
self-isolating with coronavirus and it
was suggested that he should shut up
shop for a two-week “fire-break”.
It was due to open in 90 minutes
and he had to make a decision about
whether to keep the doors bolted or
not. Athron recalls he made himself a
cup of Fortnum’s tea and quickly
decided that the shop would stay
open. “I thought it wouldn’t be two
weeks, it would end up being three
months and I was worried about the
impact it would have on the business,
our people, our team’s mental health
and the service we provided. It felt
like a big deal, but we kept it open and
I’m glad we did. I won’t ever forget it.”
Athron, 51, joined the business after
working for the John Lewis
Partnership for 12 years — including
as finance chief of Waitrose — and
most recently at Matches Fashion, the
online luxury retailer. When he left
the employee-owned John Lewis he
had told people that running
Fortnum & Mason would be his
“perfect job” but he didn’t think the
opportunity was ever going to come
up. When the phone call came, the
pandemic had made the trading
backdrop distinctly less than perfect
but Athron said he didn’t hesitate.
The 314-year-old retailer was
founded when William Fortnum
convinced his landlord Hugh Mason
to open a small grocery shop in
St James’s market in Mayfair. The
business, which has counted royalty
as customers for hundreds of years
and has its signature eau de nil
Pantone shade of blue green, has only
five stores: at Piccadilly, St Pancras
railway station, Royal Exchange and
Heathrow Terminal Five, and a shop
in Hong Kong that opened in late

2019. It has been owned by the
      Weston family since 1951 and chaired
      by the late Garfield Weston’s
      granddaughter Kate Hobhouse since


2020. 
      

      For the past few years Fortnum &
      Mason has been focused on ensuring
      it doesn’t become a tourist trap and
      Athron’s predecessor, Ewan Venters,
      had determinedly set about
      increasing the number of British
      foodies who visited its stores.
      Athron reveals that while the
      business is synonymous with its five-
      storey Piccadilly emporium, which
      suffered from dwindling customer
      numbers during lockdowns despite
      staying open, the pandemic actually
      did wonders for increasing the brand’s
      domestic customer base because of an
      explosion in online orders.
      On top of the Fortnum’s loyalists
      who were staying at home rather than
      traipsing into town, the brand also
      attracted 500,000 new customers

      
      

over the past year from all over the

country as shoppers bought more

food to eat at home than ever before.

“It’s a bit like the lipstick effect, we

offer an affordable luxury,” the boss

says of those new shoppers who

wanted to make their lockdown

dinners a bit more interesting. There

was also a surge in online corporate

gift orders, with companies turning to

Fortnum & Mason for reliably

luxurious hampers or chocolates to

stay in touch with clients and staff

after the annual schmoozing parties

had been scuppered by Covid. Online

sales now account for just under half

of the retailer’s revenues compared

Year of living dangerously leaves new

chief of Fortnum & Mason unruffled

Tom Athron got more

than he bargained for

when he started his

dream job, reports

Ashley Armstrong

Tom Athron has seen Fortnum & Mason utterly transformed by the pandemic with half a million new online customers helping its UK business to double in size

with about 15 per cent before the

pandemic. “The result is that our UK

business has doubled in size since the

start of the pandemic,” Athron says.

The swift surge in demand for

Fortnum’s deliveries has prompted

Athron to be bolder and he reveals

that he’s planning to launch some

form of rapid delivery service by the

end of the first quarter in partnership

with another firm. There’s a plethora

of start-ups to choose from, with

Ocado Zoom, Uber Eats, Deliveroo,

GoPuff, Getir and Zapp, to name a

few London-based operations, but

Athron says he’s aware that Fortnum’s

customers expect a high level of

service. “I think it would be foolish to

ignore the rapid market. There’s lots

of talk as to whether or not models

are profitable, who survives and who

gets consolidated, but the reality is

that consumer expectations have

been reset, not just in London but in

metropolitan areas.”

Athron plans to have the speedy

delivery service up and running in

time for Easter and says he’s attracted

by the idea of dinner party hosts

being able to order a “faultless beef

Wellington” and being able to specify

the time they want to receive it.

His own festive plans have involved

beef ordered “from downstairs” and

two turkeys cooked consecutively to

ensure there’s enough for leftovers.

However, he’s planning to eat plenty

more meals at Fortnum’s latest

Piccadilly restaurant, Field, which is

now selling a “woodland afternoon

tea” with wild mushroom eclairs.

Athron acknowledges he is in the

fortunate position of having a brand

that is still highly regarded in a

competitive retail environment. “I

could put the Fortnum’s label on

anything and it would sell,” he says,

but stresses that he is obsessed with

ensuring there are enough high-

quality products to justify the name.

Excitedly he hunts about his office to

find a box containing an intricately

hand-painted lifelike chocolate frog.

“That’s what Fortnum’s is about,” he

says, echoing the wonder of Charlie in

Willy Wonka’s factory.

Athron says that the store felt

“alive” at the start of the month with

26,000 people coming to stock up on

early festive gifts, and eat at its ice

cream parlour and restaurants.

However, the spread of the Omicron

variant has been “frustrating”, with

the last weekend before Christmas

significantly flatter than it should

have been during a critical trading

week as many shoppers stayed home.

While domestic trade had recovered

earlier this year to be flat on pre-

pandemic levels, the business is still

missing overseas visitors, partly due

to Covid travel restrictions and, he

reckons, the government’s “own goal”

of scrapping tax-free shopping for

foreign tourists.

In March the retailer pulled out of

exporting to the EU because of

customs complexities which meant

that only half of customer orders

were reaching them in time. Before

the pandemic, sales to Europe

accounted for 5 per cent of revenues

but Athron said that there was now

“so much additional admin — the

rules have become more complicated

and applied inconsistently”.

“It’s the same problem M&S had,

Selfridges, Harrods, Caviar & Prunier

had. It’s an industry-wide issue but we

just felt we were letting too many

customers down so we switched it off.

I’d love to find a way to switch it on

again. My guess is that as it stands, it

will take a couple of years to settle

down.”

Meanwhile, as it seems almost

impossible to control the endless

challenges, Athron has plans to

convert part of Fortnum’s Piccadilly

third floor into a live streaming space

with food demonstrations and chef

tables. “The idea is that we’re sort of

pulling the curtain back,” Athron says

— still full of enthusiasm about the

job, almost a year later.

VICKI COUCHMAN FOR THE TIMES

Q&A

Who or what is your

mentor?

Mark Price, the former

boss of Waitrose.

He gave me the

confidence to

understand that

when things go

wrong, that’s

not always

failure — that’s

learning

Does money

motivate you?

Not particularly

What has been

the most

important event of

your working life?

I felt I was given a real

break when I was made

the CFO of Waitrose

Who do you admire?

Malala Yousafzai, left,

mainly because I’m

reading her book at

the moment

Favourite TV

programme?

Succession

How do you

relax?

Watching The

Blues Brothers —

I’ve seen it a

billion times

and I love

sailing

CV

Age: 51

Education: Duke of

York’s Royal Military

School; Newcastle

University; MBA in Cape

To w n

Career: 1993-97:

graduate trainee,

Hambros Bank; 1999:

Javelin Group; 2005-17:

John Lewis Partnership;

2018-20: chief

executive, Matches

Fashion; January 2021-

present: chief

executive, Fortnum &

Mason

Family: Married with

three children