Thread by @ChrisGiles_

Harrods and fishing - a thread

For the benefit of @christopherhope who was correct on the telly today

and Paul Stains - @GuidoFawkes - who wasn't

tl:dr Harrods is worth more to the UK economy than fishing....

... has been for a few years.

... now not even close

1/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes This first arose when I calculated the fact and stated clearly the underlying rationale in a 2018 column and a tweet

https://twitter.com/ChrisGiles_/status/1009684599876866048?s=20

2/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes Having been true but forgotton, it came up today and then Paul Stains started to pretend it was false, and then, when I demonstrated it wasn't, to suggest my facts were mere "conjecture"

3/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes He doesn't understand economics and clearly cannot read company accounts, but I can.

So I will take @GuidoFawkes though this in meticulous detail. Politely

1. You need to understand how economic is measured. It is based on the concept of value added

4/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes This is the value a business or sector adds - conceptually this is the equivalent of the wage bill plus operating profits (using the income measure of GDP)

For fishing - this is very easy as the @ons publish low level aggregates

Here is the latest: ons.gov.uk/economy/grossd…

5/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes @ONS Let's look inside the spreadsheet and you need to find what the code for fishing is: Look at the 03

Then you look at the current price gross value added - here is the most recent data

6/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes @ONS So, you can see from the data that in the year to Q1 2020, the fishing and aquaculture sector of the economy was worth £437m to the UK economy

Remember that number because now we have to look at Harrods accounts from Companies House …te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/018893…

7/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes @ONS You have to understand what sort of business Harrods is. It is a retailer but also does other stuff and has concessions in store

The turnover of the business was £1,040m in the same period, and total sales in Harrods stores (with concessions) excluding VAT was £2,018m

8/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes @ONS Lets take the Harrods own brand retailing part first (The £1,040 turnover). Clearly that is not value added - it's turnover.

So go to the profit and loss account for the operating profit - its £257m - that is value added

9/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes @ONS Now we need to add the wage bill, because that is also value added. For that we need to find note 8 in the accounts - total staff costs are £180m

10/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes @ONS The numerate among us will note that
£257m + £180m = £437m

And I could stop there £437m > £436m

But that would be a bit close - so you then need to think about the other sales in Harrods not part of group's turnover

11/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes @ONS These will be things like concessions that operate inside Harrods but staff are employed by others - look jobs are advertised and easily found with a google search

12/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes @ONS This will all be on top of the £437m as will the operating profits made by these operations.

We can't know how much exactly, but there was £437m value added in Harrods turnover, so it will be a few hundred million

13/

@christopherhope @GuidoFawkes @ONS So, that's how I originally researched the facts (and, of course, spoke to Harrods to check my understanding).

And so Paul @GuidoFawkes, it wasn't "wrong" or "conjecture", but careful research

I can explain what that is again in silly detail, if you wish...

ENDS