Wedgwood

[Paul22118]

This is grim. The age old British pottery Company of Wedgwood, an iconic British name, has joined the list of those in administration.

If they can go is there any Company anywhere near safe?

[youngmafbog]

Assuming you mean established floated companies, yes, there are loads, in fact the majority. Most will find it tough and maybe have to shrink operations to a minimum for the next couple of years but they will survive.

Being an old company does not mean you aer a slick well oiled machine. Unfortunalty complacency and old habits set in and prevent this. The minute there is a blip and down they go.

They wont be the last but they will be one of the few.

[Gromit]

The Wedgwood Company ceased to be a British Pottery Company in 1986 when it was bought by Waterford Crystal of Ireland, which was itself a group of companies that are American owned.

The company has struggled financially for many years.

[Mr Veritas]

I think the downhill path was inevitable when all Wedgwood production was moved to China in 2003 (no pun intended)
Royal Doulton is made soley in China now,maybe they will go the same way.
A sad day for British Porcelain Manufacture.

[andy-hughes]

As a Potteries resident, I have watched the pottery industry decline and die, along with a major steel works (British Steel at Shelton Bar), various coal mines, inclduing the deepest in the country, and a massive Michelin plant which have dessimated the local ecconomy and employment.

I didn't hear a lot of support from the motor industry forty miles away when their industry fell in the same way - but suddenly Jaguar think themselves worthy of a government handout.

It is a tragedy that ecconomics affect people's lives and communities in this way, but this area has had to bite the bullet and get on with it.

The beautiful Barlaston location of the Wedgwood factory will be houses within five years - I'll bet on it.

[Mr Veritas]

Apologies,it seems that Royal Doulton has been part of the Wedgwood Group since 2005,so it is affected too.
Even more sad.

[jno]

Robert Peston thinks they'll soon find new owners

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robert peston/

[sp1814]

I wasn't shocked at the demise of Woolworths (for years, I couldn't work out what their USP was), but I was surprised when I heard about Zavvi (formerly Virgin Megastores).

I think we should expect some very familiar household names to go to the wall if they haven't identified and been able to exploit new revenue streams (diversification).

At work, we were talking about which companies we could see failing and we concluded that apart from HMV, Virgin, Marks and Spencer and Top Shop, we wouldn't be surprised at anyone going under.

[Supernick]

I've not been surprised by many of the companies as they haven't chnaged their business model in 20 years. Woolworths still sell exactly the same stuff they did 20 years ago, Adams hasn't bothered to update its fashion in the same, Whittards likewise. Zavvi's a bit of a red herring as they suffered so much with the distribution element of Woolworths.
Wedgewood is another. Is it tastless to say that their market is dying out? Who buys porcelain figures of ladies with bonnets anymore? It's a terrible shame for all the employees, and the way it can affect a community, but it should serve as a lesson to move with the times.

[andy-hughes]

No it's noty tasteless at all - it's an ecconomic fact.

The pottery industry has been hit by the twin whammies of loss of sales in crockery - no-one has dinner and tea sets any more, combined with cheapo Asian imports, and labour outsourcing.

It;s just a shame that the lifeblood industry of an entire area has to go to the wall. I am not affectedf personally, but the city in which i live, has been, and continues to be. I consider myself very lucky not to be employed by a pottery or ancilliary industry.

[sp1814]

Whilst it's worrying when an industry begins to die out (due to economic or social reasons), we shouldn't be blind to the fact that over the past 30 years or so, there are tons of new industries which have come in to take over:

- Internet service providers
- video games manufacturers
- digital equipment providers
- satellite television companies
- mobile phone manufacturers/sales

Those are just five that I could think of.

[Gormless]

Should I be sorry to see them go under? Recently I wandered around Allders in Croydon, looking on the bases of all the classy and expensive Doulton and Wedgewood figurines.

NOT ONE "Made in England", virtually all "Made in China".

I felt sad and the words Greed and Profit came to mind. Later on in Turtles I was pleased to buy a penknife (Taylor's Eye Witness) "Made in Sheffield England".

Turtles closed for ever on Christmas Eve, another sign of the times, but while British companies outsource all their manufacturing to China then I for one (and probably for the wrong reasons) will not cry too long. Why can't they support local people in their own country?

[baileybird]

I'm not suprised they have gone over - nice stuff if you like that sort of thing but by gum they are dear! In this day and age fancy pottery and glass ware is the last thing people are queuing up to buy. I bet there will be loads more luxury gift companies who will go under this year.

[eastern]

A commentator on "Working Lunch" said today that we have not seen the peak of all these failures. to compund this I read at the weekend that a lot of major companies are due to restructure their debt burden very soon, and when I say major I mean Tesco and Vodafone to name two. As we all know it has been relatively easy to borrow a billion here and a million there, now its not and only the strong will survive, to this end I think there will be some major shocks over the next month. Watch Debenhams/Burtons/RBS/Morrisons and a few others. It is a shame for the peoples jobs but lets face it shopping and buying trends have been changing dramatically over the last 10 years with the internet boom, if you keep up you keep going, if you stand still you get trampled on!