Harrods' Royal warrants were ‘a curse’ says Mohamed Al Fayed
FORMER Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed revealed yesterday that he had the store’s royal warrants taken down and burned.
The tycoon, who recently sold the famous department store for £1.5billion, claimed the endorsements were a “curse”.
The warrants allow a supplier to advertise that they are used by the Royal Family and Harrods had them from the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, the late Queen Mother and the Prince of Wales.
But Mr Al Fayed said: “I ordered their removal. Later I had them burned. They were a curse and business tripled following their removal.” The warrants were taken from the four corners of the store in 2000. They had been there since the late Queen Mother first gave her approval in 1938.
Egyptian Mr Al Fayed has been highly critical of the Royal Family since the deaths of his son Dodi and the Princess of Wales in a Paris car crash in 1997. During the 2008 Diana inquest he described them as “that Dracula family”.