Royal Doulton

Last updated 23rd, January, 2009

DESPITE its spectacular fall from grace as one of the biggest and most successful names in the pottery industry, Royal Doulton remains a brand synonymous with Stoke-on-Trent, writes Richard Ault.

So it’s little surprise that the rise and demise of Doulton are regarded as key chapters in the city’s history.

A simple £100 investment was enough to lay the foundations of the company which was to become one of the true giants of manufacturing in North Staffordshire.

But the combined pressures of rising costs, cheap rivals and rising debts brought the company to its knees, leading to the break-up of a once-proud firm which was eventually taken over by its arch-rival, Wedgwood.

From London to Stoke-on-Trent

It was 1815 when John Doulton risked his life’s savings to launch a partnership with Martha Jones and John Watts at a stoneware factory near the banks of the River Thames in Lambeth, London.

The business which was to become Royal Doulton – and gain fame for its tableware, collectible figurines, glass and crystal – enjoyed its earliest success in sanitation. Taking advantage of the revolution in the latter during the Victorian era, the world’s first stoneware pipe factory was established, and the firm went on to become Britain’s primary manufacturer of sanitary ware.

In 1853, the company assumed the Doulton name and John’s son Henry joined the business, which was by now focusing on producing up-market products, like fine china, dinner sets and tableware for wealthier members of society.

By 1871, Henry Doulton had set up the Lambeth Studio, which provided a training ground for designers and artists experimenting in a variety of materials and glazes. Artists like Frank Butler, Mark Marshall, Eliza Simmance and George Tinworth produced work which still sells for vast sums today.

Henry's vision was for pottery of higher artistic merit, and his efforts were recognised at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873.

In 1877, Henry bought into the Pinder, Bourne and Co factory at Nile Street in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.

It went on to become a giant of the pottery industry and collectors from all over the world still clamour to get their hands on ware once produced at Burslem.

By 1880, the number of employees at Nile Street increased from 160 to 300; in the next four years it rose to more than 500.

In 1884, the factory, which had previously only produced earthenware, started making china.

Henry Doulton’s insight and shrewd investments led him to become the first potter to gain a knighthood. By the time of Sir Henry Doulton’s death in 1897, he had established works in the West Midlands, Scotland and Paris.

Arise Royal Doulton

In 1901, Doulton was granted the Royal Warrant by King Edward VII. The newly-named Royal Doulton went from strength to strength, adopting its bold new logo – a lion wearing a crown.

Throughout the 20th century, the Royal Doulton name was synonymous with the finest English China, as its reputation spread throughout the world.

It launched its collectible series of Pretty Lady figurines in 1913, which proved enduringly popular. Under Charles Noke it became a market leader in the production of character jugs.

In 1934, the general manager of Royal Doulton’s factory in Burslem, Cuthbert Bailey, wanted to develop a new nursery ware line. He recruited his daughter Barbara Vernon Bailey, a nun known as Sister Mary Barbara, to produce some designs, which first appeared on plates and cups that year.

Meanwhile, Charles Noke is also credited with creating the first three-dimensional models by sculpting a rabbit family in the late 1930s.

By the time Hitler began his rampage across Europe, there were 66 different scenes in production and six figural pieces. By 1980, there were more than 150 designs. Models including a Jogging Bunnykins and an Astro Bunny Rocket Man continued to capture the public’s imagination in the modern age.

Royal Doulton’s continued success saw it become the first china manufacturer to receive the Queen’s Award for Technical Achievement, in 1966.

The company merged with Minton in 1968. Then, in 1972, Pearson snapped up Royal Doulton and merged it with Allied English Potteries. Royal Doulton kept its status and was incorporated with Royal Albert.

An ambitious expansion plan saw famous factories such as Baddeley Green, Churchbank, Regent, Paragon and St Mary’s – all previously parts of other pottery businesses – integrated within the Royal Doulton group.

Doulton’s portfolio also included Royal Crown Derby, based in Derby, and the glass-maker Webb Corbett of Stourbridge.

The high point came in 1972, when Pearson consolidated all its pottery operations under the Royal Doulton name.

Then, Doulton employed 7,000 people in 18 factories across North Staffordshire. The Nile Street, Burslem, factory alone employed 1,800 people and turned out tens of millions of products, from the iconic Old Country Rose dinner sets through to one-off priceless treasures of ceramic art.

The fall of Royal Doulton

But the boom couldn’t last forever and the slump in the pottery industry hit Royal Doulton hard, as this once mighty empire was gradually broken up.

The 1970s saw the loss of plants including teapot maker Alcock, Lindley & Bloor, of Hanley; the Montrose works, at Fenton; Shaw and Coggins, of Longton; and Ridgway’s North Staffs Pottery in Cobridge.

The 1980s saw factories such as Adderley Floral China, in Longton; Paragon China, of Longton; and Dunn Bennett, based at the Royal Victoria Works in Middleport, leave Royal Doulton.

The Royal Doulton Company was de-merged from Pearson in 1993, to become a publicly quoted company on the London Stock Exchange.

Factories including the Paladin works, of Fenton; Edensor works, of Longton; Churchbank, of Tunstall; and St Mary’s works, based at Fenton, were all axed during the 1990s.

Many consider 1998 to be a defining year for the company, when 1,200 people lost their jobs.

In February, 2002, the business announced the closure of its Baddeley Green factory, as part of a restructuring plan which included the loss of 500 jobs in the Potteries and the transfer of Royal Albert production to the firm’s plant in Indonesia.

The announcement was made as the company unveiled operating losses of £12.4 million for the past year, 2001, which were called a “shattering blow” by Geoff Bagnall, general secretary of the potters’ union CATU. The union accused Royal Doulton of reneging on a promise to keep Royal Albert in Britain.

But with workers in Jakarta paid an average of £72 per month, as opposed to £260-a-week for staff in Stoke-on-Trent, Royal Doulton felt the move represented its best chance for survival.

In the wake of the closure announcement, shares in Royal Doulton fell to 13.75 pence. And more bad news was to follow. On October 21, 2002, Royal Doulton’s share price opened at 4.5p, compared to around 300p in 1996. Figures showed the business made an estimated loss of more than £10 million in the first half of 2002, a similar amount to the same time the previous year.

In September 2002, Royal Doulton announced that its famous Beswick factory, in Gold Street, Longton, would also close.

This saw the halting of the Potteries production of famous brands such as Beswick and Bunnykins, with the latter being outsourced to China.

Workers at the Regent words in Longton were also told they were out of a job.

The closures and outsourcing programme led potters’ union CATU to launch a scathing attack on Royal Doulton’s senior management team, accusing them of being “destructive and incompetent” and “arrogant and complacent”.

MP George Stevenson echoed the calls for chairman Hamish Grossart and chief executive Wayne Nutbeen to be replaced. He told The Sentinel in October, 2002: “Their management plan is clearly not working, despite several reviews.

“I believe management which is not prepared to look at its domestic and international strategy....when it has clearly failed, is not up to the job. The chairman and chief executive are responsible.”

As Royal Doulton entered 2003, it had just one factory left, at Nile Street in Burslem, with a workforce of 850 people. Losses increased to £14.7 million and sales for the year to January slumped by 17 per cent to £138 million.

Pot worker Tony Bloor had spent 16 years at various Royal Doulton factories when he was made redundant in 2002. He told The Sentinel in 2003: “I have some very good memories from my time at Doulton, but most of those are from my early years. In the last few years I didn’t enjoy going to work and I still feel bitter about the way the management treated us.

“Once the management realised they could manufacture cheaper in Indonesia it was just as if we were fodder.”

Towards the end of 2003, Royal Doulton announced it was axing another 180 jobs at Nile Street and moving yet more production overseas.

Finally, in April, 2005, the famous Nile Street factory in Burslem closed its doors for the final time, leaving Royal Doulton with a production workforce of just 50 in North Staffordshire. The huge blow to manufacturing and employment in Stoke-on-Trent was marked by a front page headline in The Sentinel which read: ‘The End’.

Royal Doulton was then taken over by Wedgwood, its former arch-rival. Today, the Royal Doulton brand continues to be at the forefront of the market, with collectors and ordinary home owners snapping-up classic designs.

In a further sad twist, in January 2009, it was announced that Waterford Wedgwood, owners of Royal Doulton, had collapsed into administration.