The Speciality Food Industry - History of Partridges

By John Shepherd, Owner and Managing Director

Partridges opened its doors for the frst time at 132 Sloane Street on 25th May 1972 at 9am.

A former car showroom had been transformed into a delicatessen with the slogan “Good things for the larder”. It was the vision of my older brother Richard who after studying at the LSE with Mick Jagger, among others, had opened a chain of late night convenience stores called Shepherd Foods in 1968.

As a delicatessen Partridges was going very much against the trend of the time. Convenience and self-service were the clarion calls for food retailers.

Counters were being phased out, foor staff were being reduced and product ranges modernised. It was a bold move and a challenging one. Our prices were signifcantly higher than local competitors who included Oakeshotts, Justin de Blank, Jacksons of Piccadilly and International Stores on Sloane Square.

Although by closing at 9pm we traded later than all of them and by opening on Sundays and offering free deliveries provided a service that was readily appreciated and provided a USP. We still have the original delivery bike.

However 1972 was just prior to the recession of 1974, the oil crisis, three day week and electrical blackouts. So not a particularly auspicious time to launch an independent, traditional food shop.

It was a different world in other ways too. On the day we opened T Rex topped the charts with Metal Guru. The temperature was recorded as 47 degrees Fahrenheit and Ramu the killer whale was performing at Windsor Great Park.

The Watergate Hotel in Washington was about to be burgled the following day. Products that we sold from day one included Bird’s Nest Soup, Gulls Eggs and Frozen Jugged Hare. Game Pie and Taramasalata were popular. Our tea range included Gunpowder Tea and Russian Caravan and the cake counter sold Black

Forest Gateau and a chocolate cake the likes of which I have never seen again. Our speciality of the house was the Alderton Marmalade Ham.

In the wine department a bottle of our Vin Ordinaire sold for 60p, Chablis for 77p and Moet et Chandon champagne for £2.20. Under the section ‘lesser European wines’ there was Valpolicella for 90p. Our free range eggs were supplied by the family dentist and later on our olive oil was produced by our local vet.

We were locals ourselves and my frst home was just a few hundred yards from the front door having arrived in this world at St George’s Hospital on Hyde Park Corner. At the time of our opening Upstairs Downstairs was a fctional television programme about life in Edwardian London and we fortunately reinforced the image of the local grocers. Indeed we were mentioned in the more recent remake as such.

1972 was also the year after decimalisation. Not many products had date codes. There were no barcodes, prices were applied using a price gun and Sunday trading laws restricted the hours when alcohol could be sold and ensured that household products and bibles could not be sold at all.

It was actually very confusing. On several occasions I recall police offcers in uniform asking to buy alcohol which would result in a swift prosecution if a hapless member of staff agreed to do it. Something we fortunately avoided. So by the end of the 1970’s Partridges was still open but still had not quite developed a stride pattern.

In 1983 the opportunity arose to buy the double unit carpet shop next door. I had gone in with the intention of actually buying a carpet but the conversation with the elderly owner soon developed into a much larger business transaction.

So in 1984 we tripled in size and our new address was 132-134 Sloane Street. There was a much larger deli counter, wine section, fruit and veg department and patisserie counter. We even had a rotisserie oven for cooked chickens that eventually caught fre but in the frst year sales doubled and by the end of the second year had nearly trebled. We now had very large windows for product display and the death trap grocer’s boy delivery bike had been replaced by a van.

By the end of the decade sales had risen over 600 per cent and this was a real transformation in our fortunes. We also started to export in a small way and became Founder Members of the Guild of Fine Food Retailers who were later to become the real champions and saviours of artisan food in the United Kingdom.

Their creation of the Great Taste Awardsoften referred to as the Oscars of Speciality Foods - played a key part in the Artisan Food Revolution of the early 2000’s. It was in the 1980’s that Christmas sales became a big thing for us. Mainly because department stores closed their order books at the beginning of December.

We kept taking orders until the last possible moment. Christmas Hampers were therefore very popular as were cooked Christmas Turkeys and hams, caviar, port and stilton boxes, house claret, Patum Pepperium (Gentleman’s and Poachers’ Relish), Christmas puddings, Carlsbad and Elvas Plums, Moutarde de Meaux, sides of smoked salmon and foie gras (which we no longer sell).

Also by the end of the 1980s we were stocking over 100 own label lines.

By the beginning of the 1990s the fow of the mid 80s had given way to an ebb. Oakeshotts, our nearest competitor, had been replaced by the much more commercially orientated Europa Foods.

The Sunday Trading Act of 1994 allowed large supermarkets to trade legitimately late at night and for some hours on Sundays.

There was also a recession at the beginning of the decade that did not end until 1993. Sales at Partridges fell by 16% during this time but later on started to fow again and by the end of the decade recorded an increase of 187% over the course of the ten years.

In 1991 a memorable and fortuitous event occurred, we received a phone call from the Palace asking to order some products. We were not entirely sure at frst which Palace this was – theatre or public house. Luckily it turned out to be THE Palace, as in the Royal Household.

Rumour had it that another supplier had dismissed their Royal Warrant Holder. The Royal Warrant is actually granted to an individual not to a company and so technically the Royal Warrant had been surrendered. Due to our close proximity and desire to supply the Royal Household we leapt at the opportunity and in 1994 were granted the Royal Warrant as Grocers to Her Majesty the Queen.

This year is our 25th Anniversary of being a Royal Warrant Holder.

As with the beginning of the 1980s and 1990s the millennium for us did not get off to a very good start apart from the absence of the Millenium Bug. From the end of the year 2000 until 2004 our sales declined by 17%. One of the reasons was the arrival of Waitrose Belgravia about three quarters of a mile away.

At the time they were regarded with admiration as champions of gentrifcation around the country but regarded with dread for their range of speciality foods by many small delicatessen owners.

However another fortuitous turn occurred when the Cadogan Estate invited us to move to the newly created Duke of York Square which was a shopping area created out of the Duke of York Square Barracks on the Kings Road.

The 500 yard move south west was not an easy manouevre to perform. We managed to close down one shop and reopen the other in the space of about 4 days, if I recall correctly. Thousands of food and drink products were transported round the Square. We also expended no money at all on advertising apart from a sign on the front door of our old premises informing customers that we had relocated – to little effect.

In 2004 The Duke of York’s was known more as a barracks than as a retail destination. Due to our absence from Sloane Street many customers thought we had closed down entirely and taxi drivers denied all knowledge of the new Square.

In fairness it was in fact the frst public Square to open in London for over 100 years. We occupied the ground foor of Queripel House, a building which among other users had been used as an indoor marching hall. A year later to encourage more footfall we launched the Duke of York Square Fine Food Market with the support of Cadogan.

At frst we started with about 20 traders who I had attracted over from Borough Market. As many business ventures go the market was quiet for the frst year or so and many traders came and went. Slowly however it started to establish itself and footfall increased on Saturdays and the number of traders grew to about 70 with a signifcant waiting list. It was always a business risk to bring 70 competitors to trade just outside our front door but the market has beneftted the shop over the years and made it more accessible to a wider demographic.

As a rule we always try to offer stalls to smaller businesses and coined the word Startisan to cover the Startup Artisans who form the main body of the market.

Over the last decade there have been many memorable events. In 2012 we celebrated the Diamond Jubilee with the rest of the country and joined in a large party on the Square. In 2016 we ran the Startisans café and launched a shop in Covent Garden and the market won a national award as Best Market Attraction.

Prior to that we also won an award for Best Family Business in Retailing from Family Business United. In 2017 we joined the trend and created and launched our own Chelsea Flower Gin, frst The Original to celebrate our 45th Anniversary and the following May we launched No.2 Chelsea Flower Gin to commemorate the marriage of Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, which have both now proven to be one of our best selling products.

Looking back, what are they key elements of our longevity? Luck, team work and focus and a supportive local community have been vital ingredients.

There have been very diffcult yearsprobably about 7 – but on refection they have only served to help us savour the good times all the more. Who would have known that my brother’s vision 47 years ago would have kept me gainfully employed me with our wonderful colleagues for so many years. And also provided a fair degree of fun along the way.

I once read that the average life span of a new delicatessen is 5 years. So to have continued as an independent family business in the centre of London for 47 years must mean something. Perhaps because when we started there were no sell by dates.

Partridges, Kensington, London

The company slogan was, and still is, ‘good things for the larder’.

Today, Partridges is still very much a family-run business with Sir Richard’s brother, John Shepherd, now the Managing Director.

In fact, it is one of the few remaining family-run food shops in Central London and still cherishes its original idea of providing the very fnest quality foods.

Now located on the Duke of York Square on the King’s Road, the Partridges of Sloane Square branch features a café, a delicatessen counter, a weekly Saturday Fine Food Market and a huge range of American groceries.

Partridges was awarded its Royal Warrant in 1994 by Appointment to HM The Queen.

Today, frms that hold the Royal Warrant include grocers like Partridges, wine merchants, chemists, plumbers, mole catchers and dressmakers. The distinguishing feature, no matter the size of the company, is to provide the highest standards of service.partridges.co.uk