12. June 2008.

A new Herend store opened up in London's exclusive shopping centre, the Harrods department store, on the second floor, in the Luxury Dining ambiance. The opening ceremony was attended by Harrods’ owner, Mr Mohamed Al Fayed.

The opening of its own store clearly signals the Manufactory’s success in its trading and marketing strategy and the international recognition commanded by Herend porcelain. Based on latest information, even at the opening ceremony many orders were placed for attractive Herend porcelain pieces by customers of the Near East and India, as by great many local and loyal clienteles.

The history of the world acclaimed luxury shopping emporium started in 1834 when Charles Henry Harrod opened a general store in London's East End district. Fifteen years later Mr. Harrod moved his business to a newly developed section of the city, Knightsbridge, hoping that his store, which stood on the site of the current store, would thrive thanks to the approaching Great Exhibition of 1851. (That date and location may be familiar to Herend collectors, for the Victoria pattern and with that the fame of the Manufactory embarked on its world-conquering journey lasting to this day.)

The small store operating in a single room with two employees was turned into a fashionable department store by Mr. Harrod's son, Charles Digby. He acquired the adjacent buildings, expanded the range of products and by 1880 employed one hundred people. Later the company was incorporated, its profile supplemented by a bank and a real estate agency.
The new chief executive officer, Richard Burbidge, had erected the company's current grandiose building, which became the city's most celebrated department store almost overnight.

By the 1980s Harrods lost its shine. This is when Mohamed Al Fayed (father of the tragic Princess Diana's boyfriend) entered the scene and took over the company. Herend porcelain featured an important place in Lady Diana’s porcelain collection since the ‘80s, so Princess Diana was the patron of the awesome Herend porcelain exhibition, that took place in London in 1989.
Thanks to Al Fayed’s efforts, Harrods soon regained its former glory and, in fact, it may even have surpassed its former self.

So, one may claim without exaggeration, that Herend porcelain is given a new lease on life in this grand setting, in the luxury dinnerware department, where the Herend Porcelain Manufactory is the only one Hungarian-based company which turned up in the circle of the world’s most desirable luxury brands.

Related persons

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• Queen Victoria
• Lady Diana