Waitrose Duchy Organic estate and the first product was oaten biscuits. Products were initially sold through high-end stores such as Harrods and Fortnum & Mason. During the 1990s Duchy Originals products began being stocked in farm shops and independent delicatessens and expansion during the 2000s saw a selected range of Duchy Originals products becoming widely available in most major UK supermarkets, with Waitrose as the brand's largest customer. By 2008 sales of Duchy Originals had raised over £7 million cumulatively for The Prince of Wales's Charitable Foundation. Following the financial crisis of 2007–2008 the Duchy Originals business began making losses, amounting to around
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster is a 2007 book by Paris-based American journalist Dana Thomas. It was a New York Times bestseller. The book examines the corporate consolidation of small family-run luxury businesses into luxury goods holding companies, and their process of "democratizing" luxury by making it available for sale to the masses in the forms of handbags, clothing, and accessories. These new luxury conglomerates—principally Kering, which owns Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Brioni, and Gucci; Richemont, which owns Dunhill, Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc, and Van Cleef & Arpels, and LVMH, which owns Bulgari, Dior, DKNY,