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Few Birmingham companies can boast of a contract with one of the world’s most famous brands stretching back more than 30 years.

Yet that is what Small Heath-based Heritage Collection has achieved by providing London’s Ritz Hotel with the silverware and fine china used by guests enjoying afternoon tea in its sumptuous dining rooms.

The family business also supplies tableware to The Dorchester and Lanesborough hotels, the Orient Express and the new Shard in London, and manages to maintain these lucrative partnerships through a firm belief that quality is paramount in the face of stiff competition from cheap imports.

Heritage’s enviable client list is also thanks to the passion of its managing director, Irish-born Martin McDonagh, who is outspoken about what manufacturing stands for in Birmingham and the need for a long-term plan to sustain the industry.

At the heart of Mr McDonagh’s vision is a radical rethink of how the city’s famous Jewellery Quarter operates. He wants to see the rather unattractive Big Peg building in Vyse Street demolished, to make way for a hub of specialist jewellery designers and manufacturers who can use each other’s services.

Heritage was established in the Jewellery Quarter in 1976 but two years later moved to a purpose-built factory in Small Heath to enable the company to expand.

In 1992 Heritage bought Henry Jenkins and Sons, which was established in 1886 and supplied London Mint and Raleigh Bicycles.

The company still owns the Henry Jenkins building in Vittoria Street in the Jewellery Quarter but Mr McDonagh believes many of the buildings in the area are not suitable for modern manufacturing.