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On the shop floor with......Harrods managing director Michael Ward
Five flights up on the Egyptian escalator followed by a sharp right takes you to the inner sanctum of Harrods - the discreetly located management offices.
Once through the buzzer entry system you are in an area that is as calm as the ground floor is frenetic.Equally calm is the Harrods managing director Michael Ward who has been in the job for three years - far too long if you believe the many stories that suggest the management offices are entered via a revolving door.
In a literal sense they are not and Ward quickly dispels the myth: “There have been some positions that are high turnover but this is in-line with the market. Most of the merchandisers have been here for a considerable amount of time despite what you read. 
Although this diversity undoubtedly adds to the interest of running the company it also represents one of the challenges because it is essential for a store covering more than one million square feet that trades at the premium end of the market to have all aspects of the store maintained to the highest standards and to remain attractive to a core clientele that have sufficient money to hold seriously high expectations.
This is why there has been continuous investment in the store, according to Ward, who says the chairman Mohamed Al Fayed has a commitment to invest funds into the business: “There has been consistent investment in the infrastructure to create an environment that is different and appropriate for today and for a luxury retailer. There is even more investment this year than last despite the credit crunch.”
Without giving actual numbers he says this investment is a “very substantial proportion of ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation)”. And it appears to be working as he says the last two sets of accounts filed have shown good numbers and that the company is continuing to have a good current financial year.
Ward points to a number of areas where funds have been used to good effect including the Pet Kingdom where he says “you can buy everything from livestock to birthday cakes without sugar and chocolate, which are for animals”. There are also new concepts for eveningwear, a Shoe Boudoir, and investments up-the-store in musical instruments and a new fabric department.
The first international designer room for children has also been added. “If mother dresses in Chloe then why not the children also?” asks Ward. This probably says a lot about the customers that shop in the store. According to Ward, although a large percentage of its visitors are tourists they only generate a small amount of the group's overall turnover.
The real core customers that help fill the Harrods cash registers are local residents from Knightsbridge - many of them born overseas but who have properties in this exclusive part of the capital.
Needless to say this core customer is less affected by the consumer downturn and this is a help to the store at the present time but Ward is not taking anything for granted and suggests the store still has many of the absolute basic challenges facing other retailers in having to buy the right products and then sufficiently exciting the customers whereby they part with their cash.
At Harrods Ward says this excitement involves £10,000 devices that take you underwater, 'Power Plate' exercise machines that require only five minutes per day to build up your muscle strength and are apparently very popular with a number of famous models, a £100,000 Swarovski crystal-encrusted table football game, and a Hummer golf cart for a mere £33,000.
For the majority of the (less affluent) crowds that enter the store their excitement is probably more driven by Harrods' impressive food halls and the 28 different restaurants scattered throughout the store. New additions include a dim sum bar and a charcuterie bar concept is planned.
Another myth Ward dispels is that the food halls are merely footfall drivers stating that Harrods has “never had a strategy to bring people in not to spend”. And despite the chequered history of well know department stores opening airport outlets in addition to their flagships, Ward says Harrods' stores at Heathrow terminals one to five and Gatwick North and South are also making money.
What appears to be less of a success is the group's convenience store '102' that sits opposite the Knightsbridge store on Brompton Road with Ward suggesting it will “never pull up trees but it is fine” before adding that at a mere 9,000 sq ft it is very small in the general scheme of things. His tone suggests it is almost not worth talking about.
But this is probably a rare bit of the business that he does not get enthused about as he gives the impression that he is pretty happy with his lot running Harrods and seems to enjoy operating within both the serene environment of the management suite and the busy shop floor among the Hummer golf carts and pet profiteroles.
Tagged as: on shop floor | michael ward | harrods
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