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Index to British press articles on the Fayeds' purchase of Harrods

This article was published four days after Mohamed Al Fayed mounted his full bid for House of Fraser.  In this, the second gushing profile of Fayed to be carried by the influential Conservative Daily Mail in the space of four months, Brian Vine records Fayed's expansion plans for Harrods; his belief that Harrods staff should be paid more; his high regard for the incumbent management; his high regard for British business ethics; his love of all things English, his fine track record running the Paris Ritz hotel, and so on.
    Like his earlier Daily Mail article of 10 November 1984, Vine's piece consists largely of Mohamed Fayed's false claims.  There is only a fleeting reference to Tiny Rowland's allegation that the Egyptian was using not his own cash to buy Harrods but rather the Sultan of Brunei's.  This support given by the Mail to Fayed's bid undoubtedly consolidated the Tory Government's belief that Mohamed 'Al' Fayed would make a popular and ethical proprietor of the famous department store - despite the evidence to the contrary supplied by Rowland.

Daily Mail
Friday 8 March 1985

IN an opulent office suite, six floors above the roar of Park Lane traffic, an elegant man in pale grey silk shirt and grey corduroy trousers walked across to the window yet again.
    From where he stood you could see right across Hyde Park.  If there hadn't been hotels and high rise buildings in the way, the view of Harrods would be superb. 
    It wasn't surprising that Egyptian tycoon Mohamed Al-Fayed was looking in the direction of the world's most famous store.  The man the business world calls the Fabulous Pharaoh is today on the verge of seeing his £615 million bid for Harrods succeed.
    For months Al-Fayed has been locked in a bruising and bitter battle with Tiny Rowland of Lonrho for control of a store which will bring whoever succeeds in gaining it immense prestige.  All the indications are that it will be Al-Fayed.  Professor Roland Smith, chairman of House of Fraser, which owns Harrods, has recommended shareholders to accept Al-Fayed's offer.
    Not that Tiny Rowland has given up.  Only yesterday he called on Trade Minister Norman Tebbit to refer the Al-Fayed family's bid to the Monopolies Commission, claiming it is not they but the Sultan of Brunei who is the real bidder for the group.

    Those worried that Harrods may lose its 'Britishness' anxiously await Mr Tebbit's decision on Tuesday. 
    'I know to most British people I am probably just a bloody Egyptian,' laughs Mr Al-Fayed -- a gentle, mocking sideswipe at our national characteristic of insulting all foreigners.
    'But really, you know, I love Britain.  I love your traditions and your history.  And I like the way you do business.  Ethics and morals count in Britain like nowhere else in the world. 
    'Ever since I first came to this country as a young man and shopped in Harrods I have felt that it is the one store in the world I would like to own.  Nothing else is quite comparable.'
    It will probably be another month before Al-Fayed can be sure that his bid has been accepted, but already he and his two brothers, Ali, married to an English wife, Tracey, and Salah, married to an Italian shipping heiress Adriana, have been busy making plans for 'their' Harrods.
    As he sipped Turkish coffee in the oak-panelled suite at the top of an office block he bought for around £10 million, Al-Fayed revealed to me how he plans to 'sell' Harrods to the international public, to boost profits -- and bring more pay for the staff.
        'For seven years the store has operated under the threat of a takeover.  Now that it's free of
     squabbling I think even their very good results could be doubled,' he said.
    'I intend to work on my ideas through the board.  Our employees have always shared in our good fortunes.  If the sales girl in the hat department takes a pride in her job, then she should have the right to share in improved profits. 
    'Harrods certainly needs modern computer systems, but what I would hope to bring would be a new approach to the international marketing of Harrods, and its name for quality.
    Mohammed and his brother Ali joined the board of Harrods after the two paid Rowland £138 million for his 29.9 per cent stake last November. 

    'The board members are terrific, the whole management is admirable but I don't see how people can work happily with the sort of squabbles of the past seven years have been going on,' Al-Fayed said.
    'I think Harrods has nowhere near tapped its overseas potential, in the way the French fashion houses of Yves St Laurent and Dior have global renown with products from perfume to furniture.'

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