I went into a very beautiful kitchen and china shop on Saturday and was surprised to see Wedgewood mugs on the shelf. I had thought the company had gone down.
Two very friendly assistants told me that they can still get stock, as they can for other companies in the group .. Spode, Royal Worcester, Waterford Crystal, but that no more is being made. They said that the Waterford factory in Ireland has closed down also and all production will be shipped overseas, and Waterford is a ghost town, now. They thought an American company had bought it.
We had a good chat about it being sad that British household names are disappearing – as you do on a Saturday afternoon – and there was some shoulder-shrugging about the fact that people don’t buy expensive dinner services any more. However the shop was piled to the ceiling with Villeroy and Bosch. Rather to my delight there was no talk about the recession being to blame.
While I know nothing about the inner workings of Wedgewood et al, I had been shocked when news broke that they were going into administration. Especially as I had recently bought a few amazing and wonderful Wedgewood dinner plates for a friend of mine. They were a contemporary take on the Willow Pattern and utterly wonderful .. loved by my friend and much complimented by all who ate off them.
So I thought Wedgewood had its finger on the pulse of modern taste and were making products that people wanted. In fact I was really impressed! (Sell wonderful products and market them well and you bet I am impressed!)
The other reason that I was sad about Wedgewood is that the firm has pioneering in its blood. It has been going for 250 years and practically pre-dated the industrial revolution. Josiah Wedgewood had a revolutionery idea to use production methodology rather than have one potter making one entire piece. In ten short years he had developed a new ceramic process for dinner services and become the favourite of Royalty.
What are the lessons for small business?
Look for opportunities even with well-known brands who might be having problems with debt/bankers.
Supply what people want.
Use the most effective production process.
Market your history as a benefit… not as history.
I may have inadvertently mis-represented the Wedgewood situation. There is no further information on the Wedgewood Website so if you know more please add a comment. Thanks.