But There Aren’t Enough ‘People Who Value Authenticity And Are Willing To Pay For It’

More recently, Wedgwood’s challenges have mirrored those of British manufacturing. The business boomed in the mid 20th century, and by 1986 it employed about 12,000 people worldwide. Many were based in Stoke-on-Trent, where Wedgwood’s “paintresses” trained young apprentices to create curling floral designs. Today, Staffordshire’s potteries face an existential crisis. Four ceramics firms have gone bust or shifted production overseas in the last two years. Last week, the Fiskars Group, Wedgwood’s parent company, announced that it was pausing production for 90 days, putting 70 workers on temporary leave.

The world has changed, and businesses that can't change will go to the wall.  

Fiskars has said that this is merely a “short-term measure” caused by a lull in demand. But Wedgwood’s challenges are longstanding. As Tristram Hunt noted in his 2021 biography of Josiah Wedgwood, executives began a debt-fuelled acquisition spree in the 1990s, paying themselves handsomely while laying off more than a thousand staff. They outsourced much of Wedgwood’s manufacturing to Tangerang, Indonesia, in the mid-2000s. While Tangerang enjoyed a $25m investment, Stoke-on-Trent haemorrhaged jobs to workers who were paid just an eighth of the wage of British employees.

And wiser heads immediately reversed these decisions, banking on the cachet of UK design and heritage: 

Prevailing wisdom holds that businesses can’t compete without outsourcing labour to cheaper locations. Wedgwood shows the opposite can be true. Relocating manufacturing overseas helped destroy the brand’s heritage value: “made in Indonesia” did not have the same ring (particularly for customers in Asian markets) as “made in England”. The success of Burleigh and Emma Bridgewater, both of which still make pottery in Stoke, demonstrates that people value authenticity and are willing to pay for it.

Unfortunately, there's not enough people like that any more, thanks to Rachel from Accounts. 

Fiskars, the Finnish group that has owned Wedgwood since 2015, has been a more stable steward, investing in a tourist destination, World of Wedgwood, in Staffordshire. Nonetheless, much of Wedgwood’s pottery is still made overseas, and in 2019 the company cut 103 jobs. Further redundancies in Stoke would be a blow to artisanal craft skills and to one of the remaining pillars of the Staffordshire potteries.

Sadly, not enough people are willing - or able, in this economy - to pay Wedgewood prices when they can eat off Next or Tesco Home dinner plates. 

Wedgwood’s pottery is a reminder of the skills that Labour should be trying to protect.

Relying on Labour to protect something quintessentially English? A fool's errand!