Meet the private concierge who sources £3m LaFerraris and organises shopping sprees for the super-rich
When it comes to the 1%, only the rarest and most luxurious gifts will do. Mayfair residents spend almost £650,000 per year on shopping sprees, but their Christmas presents aren't always easy to source.
As a result, many wealthy Londoners are turning to professional concierge companies to help them plan their festivities.
Frances Hallworth-Noble is the founder and Managing Director of The London Concierge Company (TLC) - a bespoke service for moneyed property owners and banking families which charges a daily rate of £1,000 to source the most expensive Christmas presents on earth.
Hallworth-Noble moved into the concierge business after spending 20 years as a PA for wealthy financiers and businessmen working for the likes of HSBC, Deloitte and Instinctif Partners.
"I'd been working for these people for the last 20 years," she said, "and one of the families I worked for actually ran their own concierge service. Many of the things they were asking me to do - restaurant bookings and organising events - I'd already been doing this for other employers for a while and I just thought 'I could be doing this myself.'"
In 2014, Hallworth-Noble left her job at Barclays to launch TLC and work on her business full-time.
In the last year, Frances has helped her clients buy some of the most extravagant gifts and treats for themselves, from a £10,000 Chanel watch to a rare, silver LaFerrari worth £3 million.
"One of our most recent clients wanted a silver LaFerrari. They're incredibly rare and difficult to buy if you don't know the right people." The entrepreneur said that it took her and her team around two months to find someone who was selling a supercar that fit her clients' needs.
"We found some versions of the car that were red and yellow and we could've had the body repainted," she said, "but that wasn't what the client wanted."
Hallworth-Noble said the car her team finally found will sell for £3 million if her client decides it's the Ferrari for him.
While Hallworth-Noble's clients are undoubtedly big-spenders, she refuses to work with anyone with unrealistic expectations.
"I don't take s**t from my clients," she said,"and they are very upfront with me as well. I have dropped clients in the past when they are difficult to work with because, at the end of the day, nothing will ever be good enough for some people. It's a waste of everyone's time to entertain that."
The company's clients come from all over the world from places like China, Russia and the Middle East, and many come to the UK exclusively for pre-holiday shopping trips.
"We had a couple of clients come over Christmas who we treated to our '100k' itinerary. We put them in a presidential suite in a hotel, and organised shopping for the four days they were here. Harrods, Selfridges, Harvey Nics, Chanel's private boutique, wherever they want to go."
Hallworth-Noble charges a daily rate of £1,000 for the comprehensive package, but the company also takes a small commission on goods purchased on clients' personal shopping sprees.
"We liaise with the personal shoppers at the stores we're going to so we can tailor the entire experience to the client's style, their ideal spend and the gifts they need to buy."
On a recent shopping trip, Hallworth-Noble said that a business partner of one of her company's members spent more than £100,000 in one day.
As well as organising shopping trips and booking Michelin-starred dinners, TLC also works with luxury brands around the festive Christmas period, and often holds a Christmas market event for the firm's members, who pay around £3,600 per year for access to TLC's lifestyle management service.
The annual fee means that TLC's members can receive a total of 36 hours of support per year, to use however they wish, but when clients are in town, Hallworth-Noble said that her job is non-stop.
"While they're in town a client will be in our care 24/7, just in case they want to change any of their plans like going to a different restaurant one evening. You really do have to be on call whenever they need you. It can be quite challenging."
But despite her members' unique tastes, the entrepreneur loves her job.
"I get to work with people who are incredibly successful from all over the world. Many of my clients are wonderful, fascinating, lovely people, and it's a very rewarding job."