Mon 1 Sep 2008
Builder's breakfast
There's luxury property and then there's luxury property. Rupert Bates meets Mark Collins, managing director of Harrods Estates, to discuss how the other half do business.Well it was not going to be a sandwich at Pret a Manger was it? As staff canteens go the Georgian Restaurant in Harrods is okay. "No, I certainly do not lunch here every day!" said Mark Collins, managing director of Harrods Estates.
Think Harrods and you think of its Egyptian owner Mohammed Al Fayed. I was told Mr Al Fayed might pop over to our table. He didn't, but a big cheese from the Dubai International Financial Centre did. Harrods is that sort of place. You are just as likely to bump into a high-ranking Middle East businessman checking his property portfolio in the Harrods display window, as get shoulder barged by casual tourists acquiring Harrods bags without actually buying anything.
The closest I did get to Mr Al Fayed was to taste the bread and butter pudding, which apparently is his own recipe. The Bailey's sauce drizzled on top of it was Collins' idea.
That was the extent of Collins' alcohol intake for there was a meeting with Mr Fayed to attend. It was to do with Al Fayed's Fulham football club and, with Collins a director at Craven Cottage, if he had not been the soul - actually it was salmon en croute - of discretion, I am sure I would have got the 'Andy Johnson signs from Everton' exclusive.
Harrods Estates is the luxury - put it this way, they do not do Hull starter homes - real estate arm of the Harrods Group. You could buy a parking space, or Hull, for £250,000 or Harrods can sell you a £30 million penthouse in Knightsbridge. This is a world where nobody can hear your credit crunch.
Its residential development department works with the likes of Berkeley, Barratt, Hutchison Whampoa, Octagon and Crown Dilmun. Its current portfolio includes Allingham Court - 12 house built like Olympic cyclists on The Bishops Avenue in London. Barratt may have taken a beating in the stock and housing markets, but the volume builder should take a bow for the quality of these exceptional properties. Not that any marketing material tells you they are by Barratt. Being priced from £3.9 million to £11 million the pompous retort from wealthy clients would be: "Must be bloody big boxes."But the height of snobbery has to be Harrods Estates referring to the sale of an £8 million apartment in Albert Hall Mansions, Knightsbridge as "London's first purpose-built apartment block for the middle and upper classes."
I can think of plenty of people who drop the H in 'All who could afford it. What would Berkeley boss and Al Fayed's chum Tony Pidgley make of such hauteur? Pidgley and Al Fayed, after their Harrods Village partnership, still chat and Collins says Al Fayed's eye for property detail is extraordinary.
The House and Estate Agency originally opened as a subsidiary of Harrods in 1897 on the ground floor of the shop. During the Second World War the head office, by now across the road in Knightsbridge House, suffered a direct hit from a V1 doodlebug, demolishing the building.
After various lives and moves, Harrods Estates was re-launched in 1994. Harrods has the sort of international clients who expect a bespoke service. It has an acquisitions department for buyers looking to purchase prime residential property, taking personal shopping to a new level. 'A Mayfair mansion or a Surrey stud farm sir?' or more likely 'Your Excellency.' 'Would you like it gift wrapped?'
The Harrods brand opens heavy handcrafted doors the world over with two-thirds of its clients from overseas, led by Russia, the Middle East, India and China. "The Harrods brand is very powerful. Within a short time of moving to Harrods I realised its unique value. We have a great reputation for high quality customer service, especially abroad. Our style of business is personal and one to one," said Collins.
Collins started his working life with British Airways in the flight operations department at Heathrow and has retained his passion for aviation. "At the airport I am the one buying Flight magazine. My favourite film? Top Gun."While putting Heathrow and customer care in the same sentence is laughable, Collins' time at BA taught him the value of service.
Before Harrods, Collins was at Hamptons International, failing in an MBO attempt. He lists Mr Al Fayed "the greatest entrepreneur" as one of his biggest influences, as well as John Slatter, an estate agent who owned Bridgers before it was bought by Hamptons and Mike Carr, his head of audit at Hamptons. "They taught me the importance of good customer service and strong leadership," said Collins.
Strong leadership is important in the football as well as the property premier league. Fulham, in a feat of escapology Houdini would have applauded, avoided relegation last season on goal difference.
If you really want to wind him up suggest Harrods is the Manchester United of global brands. Whisper it in the corridors of Craven Cottage, but Collins is very much a rugby fan, closely following the promising career of his 17-year-old son Harrison, a number eight tilting at North of England honours. Collins junior is in the Stonyhurst first fifteen, alma mater of England internationals Will Greenwood, Kyran Bracken and Iain Balshaw and where former England head coach Brian Ashton taught.
Harrods Estates may have deliberately diversified abroad away from the domestic residential sales market, but building an affluent international client base means they will always have overseas buyers to feed into premium new homes developments in the UK. Now all we need is Primark to start an estate agency to galvanise the budget end of the market, although I would not touch the bread and butter pudding in its staff canteen.
Posted by Rupert Bates
in Barratt Development, Berkeley Homes, Builder's Breakfast, Crown Dilmun, Hamptons International, Harrods Estates, Hutchison Whampoa, John Slatter, Mark Collins, Mike Carr, Mohammed Al Fayed, Octagon, Tony Pidgley on Mon 1 Sep 2008
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