Prestat Ltd is one of London's oldest chocolate shops. It has been awarded two

Royal Warrant A royal warrant is a document issued by a monarch which confers rights or privileges on the recipient, or has the effect of law. Royal warrant may refer to: * Royal warrant of appointment, warrant to tradespeople who supply goods or services to a r ...

s: from Her Late Majesty The Queen and Her Late Majesty

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was the l ...

History

Prestat Ltd was established in 1902 by French émigré Antoine Dufour. The Dufour family created the chocolate truffle in Chambéry in France in December 1895 but it only became widely available when the new creation was brought to England by Antoine Dufour with the opening of the first Prestat shop in South Molton Street in central London. Antoine Dufour, for reasons uncertain, named his business Prestat after Pierre Prestat who was his wife's first cousin and some of the earlier packaging has the company's name as P. Prestat. Antoine Dufour opened a further two shops, one at 405 Oxford Street and a second at 28 St Swithin's Lane in the City of London financial district. Antoine Dufour passed the business on to his son Tony Dufour who ran Prestat through to the late 1950s. The difficulties of trading during the Second World War led to the closure of the Oxford Street and St Swithin's Lane stores and Tony Dufour eventually sold the business to brothers Neville and Maxwell Croft. The company received royal warrants as purveyors of chocolates to

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

in 1975 and to

in 1999. Nominated as one of the world's top three chocolate shops by '' The Economist'' in 2003 Prestat's current flagship store is at 14 Princes Arcade,

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...

, and in March 2009 Prestat opened within the Chocolate Hall of

Harrods Harrods Limited is a department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It is currently owned by the state of Qatar via its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The Harrods brand also applies to other ...

. Its current range of packaging is the work of designer and artist Kitty Arden, who in 2000 collaborated with Lulu Guinness, the handbag designer, to create a limited edition handbag in the design of the Prestat shop. The company products are now sold in leading stores (including Harrods, Selfridges, Liberty & Co. and John Lewis Partnership) and fine food shops throughout the UK. Prestat exports its chocolates to countries including

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, Singapore, Dubai,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, Germany and the Netherlands. The company has been owned by the Italian firm Domori part of the Illy Group since 15 March 2019.

Notable customers

Prestat has had a long history of celebrity customers from the actress

Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...

in the 1910s through to Sir John Gielgud and Dame Peggy Ashcroft in the 1950s, Princess Diana in the 1990s and Stephen Fry, Adrian Lester, and Peter Mandelson today.

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has be ...

, author of ''Charlie'' and ''The Chocolate Factory'', made Prestat truffles central to his racy novel '' My Uncle Oswald''. In this novel, a scheming temptress seduces numerous geniuses and royalty of the 20th century with a love-potion inserted into Prestat truffles.

References

External links

* {{coords, 51.5082, -0.1374, display=title 1902 establishments in the United Kingdom British brands British Royal Warrant holders British chocolate companies Piccadilly Retail companies established in 1902 British companies established in 1902 1902 establishments in England