Historic fine bone china manufacturer Royal Crown Derby has announced a restructure of the business to help it meet demand for tableware products in the luxury hospitality sector.
The firm, which employs around 140 people at its Osmaston Works, in Osmaston Road, has launched a restructuring programme, which aims to target its production towards making pieces for top-end hotels and similar outlets.
Royal Crown Derby, which was founded in 1750 and is the 海角视频’s oldest tableware manufacturer, currently makes products for both the retail and hospitality sectors.
READ MORE: {}
However, according to the firm, due to the general decline in the retail sector and the growth the company is seeing in hospitality, it has decided to refocus the business.
It is not known whether there will be any redundancies at the firm as a result of the restructure.
Managing director Christopher Oakes, son of owner and chairman Kevin Oakes, who bought the business in 2016, said: “In recent years global consumer demand has changed significantly and we recognised the need to adapt and expand our product portfolio to expose this iconic British brand to a broader customer demographic.
“For example, we now produce tableware which is hand-decorated with stunning reactive glazes, that we offer at much lower prices when compared to our traditional collections.
“Production volumes have increased by around 60% in the past five years and, accordingly, a number of jobs were created in 2018.
Most Read
“Our product mix continues to shift towards our hospitality portfolio, underpinned by the well-publicised challenges in the retail sector; especially in the 海角视频.
“As such, the associated work content has caused some of our departments to be oversubscribed, while others are undersubscribed.”
Mr Oakes said that Royal Crown Derby has been attempting to manage its existing resources to cope with the differing levels of work for each department.
He said: “We’ve sought to manage our work flow by introducing new products, flexing stock levels, requesting cross-departmental working and, as a last resort, utilising periods of lay-off working.
“This issue has been highlighted in the last two weeks as we secured the largest order in our history for a luxury hotel in London.
“While this is fantastic news, it’s now essential that the business is reconfigured to ensure we continue to offer industry leading service levels, while maintaining the highest quality standards.”
According to the firm, the restructure programme is expected to take between 30 and 40 days and will affect around 15% of the workforce, which equates to about 20 staff.
Don’t miss
Mr Oakes said: “Despite the positivity surrounding our growth in new products and sectors, the coming days and weeks will be unsettling for our incredibly loyal and hard-working team.
More manufacturing news from across Derbyshire
“The programme will be conducted as sensitively as possible and we are offering the maximum level of support to our colleagues who are affected.”
All of Royal Crown Derby’s products are 100% made in England. It became known as Crown Derby by King George III in 1775. In 1890, Queen Victoria bestowed the title ‘Royal’ upon the firm, thus creating the full name of the firm.
Today, it has global distribution in more than 50 countries. Its clients include some of the worlds finest retailers, luxury hotels, yachts, jets and royal palaces.