Spode for sale
HISTORIC pottery firm Spode could be sold as part of a major restructuring.
Bosses at joint business Royal Worcester and Spode have appointed accountancy practice KPMG to review options for the company's future.
One option includes principal shareholder Alan Finden-Crofts selling his stake in the business.
Stoke-based Spode axed 250 workers last year to leave around 160 staff at its historic headquarters in Church Street. They include just 20 prestige pottery manufacturing workers.
Responding to reports KPMG is seeking a rescue buyer for the firm, a Royal Worcester and Spode spokesman said: "The company has been undertaking a complete restructuring of its business since 2003, which is now virtually complete.
"Alan Finden-Crofts, who has been a principal shareholder of the business since 1988, has funded this restructuring along with the company's bankers, Burdale Financial.
"In April the company instructed its advisers KPMG to review the appropriate future funding and ownership options for the business given the impending completion of the restructuring programme.
"These options include the continued ownership by Alan Finden-Crofts or may involve him taking a minority position or selling his shares. The decision will be taken on the basis of what is right for the business."
Royal Worcester, which was established in 1751, is the third-largest fine china manufacturer in the UK behind Wedgwood and Royal Doulton.
But it has struggled against cheaper competition from abroad and production is no longer carried out in Worcester.
Spode, which was established in 1767, has also been hit by increasing overseas competition. The amount of wares made overseas has increased from 40 per cent to 75 per cent.
Geoff Bagnall, general secretary of pottery union Unity, said: "Our real concern is the jobs within the company. If jobs are going to remain here and the company is going to grow, we would welcome a sale.
"But Spode employs very few people in Stoke compared to what it once did, so if more jobs are going to go we would see it as a complete disaster. It all hinges on what they are planning to do."
Mr Finden-Crofts bought Royal Worcester and Spode with New York lawyer Ed Gottesman from London International in the late 1980s.
In 2005 Mr Finden-Crofts, a former chief executive of sports firm Dunlop Slazenger, took control of the business with a £12.5 million management buyout backed by three U.S. investors, who own the remainder of the business.
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2 Comments
by martha copeland, San Francisco, CA, USA
Sunday, December 07 2008, 4:55AM
“It is hard to imagine that such a fine company will be gone. I blame it on the fad of pure white china "which goes with anything" - well, I'm not a woman who goes with anything and I certainly don't want a table so drab. There are so many wonderful hand-painted patterns - I feel so sad that this will be closed, and I hope the museums are saved, as those are national treasures.”
by Stuart Allsop, Ipstones
Tuesday, September 30 2008, 3:54PM
“I worked in sales for Spode in the early '70's. It was a great place to work. What a buzz there was in the potteries then. It seems hard to contemplate that export buyers used to spend a least a week in Stoke going round to the different factories. Spode had so many skilled people working there from ground layers to hand painters. I know that people always say that it's cheap imorts that have killed the industry but I was only talking to someone a couple of weeks ago who wanted to purchase English Fine Bone China made in England not abroad. I hope it finds a buyer. All these great pottery names a shadow of what they were.”