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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Neha Gohil Midlands correspondent

UK’s fragile heirloom: ceramics sector calls for more help to save ‘vital industry’

A woman in the lithographing area at the Portmeirion factory in Stoke-on-Trent.
The Portmeirion factory in Stoke-on-Trent is keen to expand its production in the UK. Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian

On the floor of Portmeirion’s factory in Staffordshire, staff are hard at work as clays are moulded, glazed and fired – an intricate process requiring precision and specialist skills honed over years of practice – to manufacture the company’s array of tableware.

Portmeirion, a homeware brand founded in 1960 that employs 433 people, is based in Stoke-on-Trent, at the heart of British ceramics. The centuries-old craft is so integral to the area’s identity that the six federated towns that make up the Staffordshire city are known as the Potteries.

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