Diversified routes to market and product offering.
Any of our products will fulfil their raw purpose and function brilliantly well, because they have been manufactured to the highest standards, to be strong, resilient and durable. But it is our creative design team which makes the difference, they elevate functional to fabulous, and that’s what delights our customers and keeps our product on the table or on display for decades. A design, a theme or a style can often be instantly recognised or connected to one of our brands. Spode is designed to be beautifully bold and Portmeirion is designed simply to be loved.
Because design is central to our brand proposition, we never out-sourced the creative design process, choosing to keep it in-house, with a team based in the UK and US. They take inspiration from our own archive and are informed by fashion and consumer trends, working to an 18-24 month forward product roadmap. At the time this report is published in Q1 2025, our team are finalising new designs to be in-store for Christmas 2026 and excited for what 2027 might hold.
Our heritage collections are extended every year and this keeps them front of mind with customers and collectors. Examples in 2024 include our annual Spode Christmas Tree plate, new decorations and Spode Staccato - which can be mixed and matched with our classic Spode Blue Italian collection which was first introduced over 200 years ago.
New products are designed and introduced to a collection every year, often targeting new and different demographics in the market. In 2024, we launched our beautiful Portmeirion Minerals tableware collection – a reactive stoneware collection presented in recyclable packing that appeals to a younger and sustainability conscious customer. New shapes are developed each year to extend successful collections. Often this will enable access to new markets which may require different dining experience or cultural need. Similarly, our new Wax Lyrical England home fragrance collection, which launched in 2023, gained wider distribution in 2024. It offers an incredible quality, UK made product, for exceptional value and is gaining very good traction in the grocery channel.
Our business was founded over 65 years ago in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and the city has remained the location of our headquarters, our tableware factory and warehouse ever since. Stoke-on-Trent has been the global centre of ceramic design and manufacture since the 1700s, it is our home and was the birth place of our Spode and Portmeirion brands. We benefit from the wonderful skills and talent that have been passed down from generation to generation. Our US offices are located in New Jersey, Connecticut and New Mexico, and we have further offices in China, Canada and Germany.
Our Wax Lyrical home fragrance business is based 120 miles north of Stoke-on-Trent in the Lake District National Park at Ulverston, Cumbria, which is the location of both its office and factory.
We manufacture c.40% of all the product we sell globally at our two factories in England and what we do not manufacture ourselves we outsource to long standing partner factories that we have worked with for many years, all to our same exacting quality standards and in compliance with our ethical codes of conduct. Our ambition is to increase the percentage of product we make in our Stoke-on-Trent factory over the next 12-24 months.
Our UK warehouses service the UK and international customers and our US warehouses in Connecticut and New Mexico service the US, Canada and Latin America.
Our revenue is generated from three routes to market:
Wholesale (national and independent retailers):
Our wholesale channel accounts for 83% of total sales and our customers are national and independent retailers, or distributors in some markets, who in turn sell to national and independent retailers.
We support our wholesale customers through the use of wholesale marketing, online marketing and digital assets to promote the sale of our premium branded products. Many of our wholesale customers are omni-channel retailers with both physical stores and online sites.
Own eCommerce:
We operate our own eCommerce websites in the US and UK which accounts for 9% of total sales, offers a higher margin and the opportunity to build closer relationships with customers and engender long term brand loyalty.
Own Retail:
We have 5 factory outlet stores which trade as Portmeirion Home in the UK and 7 Nambé stores in New Mexico, US which accounts for c.8% of total sales.
In international markets, outside of North America and the UK we have used distributors which allows access to markets but permits us to limit our stock holding locations around the world.
Over the next 3 years we will increase capital allocated to brand marketing, so that we can get behind our premium brands and support their growth in our 3 existing established markets (UK, North America & South Korea) and most critically, to explore and develop new international markets where our premium brands have no presence and the medium-long term opportunity is most abundant. Certain of our brands will see c.5-8x increase in spend from current levels as funds are available.
In 2024, we increased social media engagement across our tableware brands with in-house and influencer videos reaching more eyes than ever before. Online engagement with fans of our brands and potential new customers represents a great opportunity for us to further leverage our design portfolio and collections.
Our investment in marketing covers a wide range of assets, including the production of digital assets (images and video content) for online platforms; communicating to our consumer base across social media channels, exhibiting our products at trade shows and in our showrooms around the world. Our 2024 investment in a larger showroom in Atlanta, Georgia for the US market, has allowed us to present more of our products and has been well received by our customers.
Our business is controlled centrally from our headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent, UK, with divisional responsibility in the US and in our home fragrance operation in Cumbria, UK.
Our Board of Directors and their responsibilities can be found here. In addition, we have a senior leadership team comprising leaders of all key functions. This structure of the Board and senior leadership provides the governance framework for the Group in the implementation of our strategy and delivery of our business model.
Our Group functions are US and UK based and globally focused. We have senior leaders in our key regions to ensure we are connected to our customers and can act quickly. We feel this approach allows a balance of efficiency but remains responsive to our customer needs and allows us to maximise opportunities at a market level.
Our business model aims to address the needs of our stakeholders:
For shareholders – to treat every shareholder as an owner, to provide them with insights which enable them to understand our long term business model and appreciate the brands we own, to determine what is important to our future success and prosperity, and to enable them to make informed investment decisions. With owners who are aligned to our Brand Mindset and support our endeavours we can create long term value, build a sustainable profitable and growing business, with lower risk and increasing capacity for shareholder returns;
For customers – we strive to produce products which delight our customers and they can enjoy, that can be used every day or for occasions, a product which lasts many lifetimes;
For our people and local communities – our focus on social impact and a clear governance structure are at the heart of our business and core to our brand DNA. More information is available here;
For suppliers – having a positive interaction with suppliers allows us to deliver higher standards and reduce risk in our supply chain whilst seeking cost efficiencies and positive environmental outcomes;
For the environment – we strive for operational excellence whilst reducing environmental impact. More information is available in “Our commitment to ESG” and The Companies (Strategic Report) (Climate-related Financial Disclosure) Regulations 2022 Report on pages 24 to 28 in our Annual Report 2024.
The beating heart of our Company is our talented people, and our 659 colleagues embody our creativity, professionalism,ambition, focus, passion, resilience, and determination. Working together they design, develop, manufacture, sell and work with our customers and suppliers every day. They have a huge combined level of experience and skill; they have a passion for our brands and the products they produce. Such commitment and passion is hard to replicate.
As a result of the challenges that the business has faced over the last two years and their subsequent and significant impact on factory volumes, we have had to take the very difficult decision to reduce our colleague numbers over the last two years from 868 to 659. We fully recognise the impact that these decisions will have had on all those affected and I would like to sincerely thank our teams for their commitment and understanding during this very difficult time.