Nigel Blow, the former Harrods executive, has said Fenwick withdrew the offer of a CEO role just two weeks before he was due to join the company. The withdrawal of the offer followed allegations of sexual assault and rape made against former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, of which Blow has denied all knowledge.
Blow worked for Al Fayed at Harrods in various senior roles from 2002 to 2007 and said he had reacted “with horror” at a recent BBC documentary in which a number of women came forward to say they had been abused by Al Fayed during his ownership of the department store from 1985 to 2010.
“I can confirm that, during my time at the business, I never heard about or witnessed any such behaviour by Mr Al Fayed,” Blow has said in a statement released to TheIndustry.fashion.
Blow did however confirm that he was aware of other serious allegations made in the BBC documentary and was a victim of some of Al Fayed’s malpractice himself, which led him to quit his role with Harrods.
“I did witness, however, numerous instances of employees’ offices, telephones and even cars being bugged, including my own. I was also aware there were times I was followed by Al Fayed’s security team. On multiple occasions I saw transcripts of my own telephone calls on Mr Al Fayed’s desk. Such behaviour prompted me to seek alternative employment from 2006,” Blow said.
Blow, a seasoned retail executive, had been due to join Fenwick as CEO this month but it was reported by the BBC earlier this week that he would no longer be joining. That report suggested Blow himself had decided not to take up the post, which he has denied.
“I am shocked that Fenwick has withdrawn its offer of the CEO position to me, just two weeks before I was due to start on 17 October and after several weeks of me meeting many Fenwick executives and shareholders in preparation for joining
“Fenwick announced my appointment on July 30. I was very excited to join Fenwick and take on the significant challenge of turning the business around to profitability after a run of poor, loss-making, results in recent years.
“Disappointingly, Fenwick seems to have found me ‘guilty by association’ in light of the understandable furore concerning the reported behaviour of Harrods’ former owner Mohammed Al Fayed. I believe Fenwick’s action is unjustified, unfair and in breach of contract,” he said. He is now taking legal advice.
After he left Harrods, Blow held many senior industry roles including heading up Irish department store Brown Thomas and independent department store group Morley’s in South London, where he had been CEO since 2019, having joined the business in 2017.
“I have had a marvellous eight years with this consistently profitable retailer and only the larger and challenging opportunity that Fenwick offered me tempted me to leave.
“I resigned my position of CEO of Morley’s in July 2024 and am currently serving my notice period with the full backing of the board,” he said.
In 2013 Blow was appointed at Turnbull & Asser as managing director. This business is owned by Mohammed Al Fayed’s brother, Ali Fayed and his three sons, who Blow said he held “in very high regard”. “They reside in the USA and I do not believe they would have known anything about these terrible allegations relating to Harrods. Mohammed Al Fayed had nothing to do with the ownership of Turnbull & Asser,” Blow said.
Nigel Blow
He hit out at the BBC for not offering him the opportunity to explain his position (and indeed for suggesting he had declined to do so) when they published the story about him no longer joining Fenwick, believing the story had tarnished his professional reputation.
“I also must highlight the sloppy and unprofessional journalistic standards displayed by the BBC in this matter. The BBC claims I have declined to comment on multiple occasions, but not once has any enquiry reached me personally.
“On Thursday 26th September Ben King from the BBC sent an email via the Morley’s general enquiry email. As it is 18 years since I worked at Harrods, and I was about to leave the business, it was decided internally that, as CEO of Morley’s, I should make no response.
“The same week, I had been questioned by Fenwick’s chairman, deputy chairman and the incoming HR director about my possible knowledge of Mr Al Fayed’s alleged behaviour. I assured them I had absolutely no knowledge of any of the allegations and expressed my willingness to make a statement. Fenwick requested I did not make a statement. Caught in a two-week window between the CEO role of two major department store groups, I was working with their respective HR teams, with what I thought was their full support. In the case of Fenwick this was not the case.
“I now know that a presumably similar email from the BBC was sent to Fenwick on Monday 30th September, but Fenwick has declined to show it to me. I still have never seen it, despite requesting a copy from both Fenwick and the BBC reporter.
“Despite this, after receipt of the BBC’s email, via a meeting on Microsoft Teams at around 2pm on Monday, the Fenwick chairman Sian Westerman informed me the company ‘was not able to proceed’ with my employment as CEO of Fenwick on the mutually agreed date of October 17th 2024, in order to safeguard the reputation of the Fenwick business. Fenwick then put out the untrue statement at 3pm that I had decided to not join the business. The decision was theirs, not mine. Fenwick claimed that they were not able to provide me with written options of a statement due to unexplained time restraints.”
“It would appear that the BBC team is prepared to tarnish or ruin the reputation of every senior person who worked at Harrods during Mr Al Fayed’s ownership, under the serious and damaging misapprehension that ‘of course they must have known’. That is a very serious assumption to make about what is a very large group of well-regarded retailing executives.”
Fenwick issued a statement to say: “In July 2024, we announced that we would be appointing Nigel Blow as CEO of Fenwick. Nigel Blow has informed us that he will no longer be taking up this position.” The company said it would be making no further comment to Blow’s statement.
Harrods is currently carrying out an investigation into whether any current staff were involved in Al Fayed’s abuse and is inviting any further victims of his crimes to come forward.
