Harrods profit hit by one-off costs as trade remains ‘stable’ amid luxury challenges

By Lynsey Barber | Published: 6-Oct-2025
Finance Retail

The luxury retailer reported turnover of £1.08bn for the 2024 financial year, but ‘significant exceptional costs led to a loss before tax of £36.5m

Harrods’ profit was hit by one-off costs in 2024, including compensation payouts to survivors of alleged historic abuse perpetrated by Harrods former Chairman and owner Mohamed Fayed, who died in 2023.

Operating profit for 2024, before exceptional items, was £177.7m, a decrease from £213.9m in 2023, the luxury retailer’s latest accounts filed with Companies House show. 

The decline in operating profit reflected “ongoing investment in employee salaries and increased distribution costs”, said Michael Ward, Harrods Managing Director, but demonstrated “the strength of the fundamentals of our business”.

“Significant exceptional costs” led to a loss before tax of £36.5m.

“These exceptional costs include the strategic digital transformation of our enterprise resource planning system and a provision for redress and associated costs for survivors of historic abuse perpetrated by Harrods former Chairman and owner, Mohamed Fayed,” said Ward. 

“The Harrods Redress Scheme was launched on 31 March, 2025 and since the Redress Scheme’s inception, more than 100 survivors have entered the process. 

“Compensation awards and interim payments began being issued to eligible survivors at the end of April 2025, and the scheme will remain open until 31 March 2026.” 

Turnover for the year was £1.08bn, a 0.6% increase on 2023, representing “stable trade”, said Ward.

This was “despite trading conditions in the luxury sector remaining challenging and once again showing outperformance by Harrods of the luxury industry as a whole”, he said.

“The current domestic and global economic environment means that current trading conditions in the luxury sector remain challenging.

“However, we remain confident in the strength of the business, and the resilience of the luxury sector, and that we will continue to drive progress towards longer-term growth and performance objectives.

“Our results demonstrate the resilience of Harrods’ business strategy of commitment to exceptional customer offerings and ongoing investment in this period across our Knightsbridge store including the continued redevelopment of our womenswear spaces and renovation of The Georgian restaurant.”

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