The Denby name has been rescued under new ownership, but the company’s historic Pottery Village and remaining UK stores will close permanently this weekend.
A buyer has been found for the Denby Pottery brand, administrators have confirmed, although the identity of the new owner and its plans for the business have not yet been revealed.
The sale ensures that the Denby name will continue, but it does not include the rescue of the company’s historic manufacturing operation or its remaining UK shops.
Denby Pottery Village, which stands on the Derbyshire site where pottery has been produced since 1809, will close for the final time at 4pm on Sunday, August 30.
The company’s remaining stores in Ashford, Braintree, Castleford, Cheshire Oaks, Dalton Park, Portsmouth and York are also due to close permanently this week.
Hundreds of jobs affected by Denby collapse
The closure marks the final stage of a collapse which has affected hundreds of workers across Derbyshire and the rest of the country.
Denby employed approximately 500 people when it entered administration on March 31, including around 350 based at its Derbyshire factory.
More than 120 manufacturing employees were subsequently made redundant as administrators failed to find a buyer willing to continue production. The closure of the Pottery Village and remaining stores will now affect further retail and hospitality jobs.
A final total for the number of redundancies across the Denby group has not yet been confirmed.
Production at the historic Derbyshire factory ended earlier this year, bringing more than two centuries of pottery manufacturing at the site to a close.
Denby had faced several years of financial pressure caused by declining demand, rapidly rising energy costs and increased employment costs.
Administrators attempted to find a buyer for the company as a working manufacturing business, while a public #SaveDenby campaign attracted tens of thousands of supporters. Despite those efforts, no rescue deal could be secured for the factory and its workforce.
Future production remains uncertain
A sale of the Denby brand has now been agreed, but administrators have not disclosed the identity of the buyer, the value of the deal or where future Denby products will be manufactured.
That uncertainty has led to concern among former employees and the GMB union about whether pottery carrying the Denby name will continue to be made in Britain.
GMB organiser Craig Thomson described the closure of the Pottery Village as a “tragedy for Derbyshire” and called for greater transparency about the new owner and its intentions for the brand.
Tony Wright, joint administrator of the Denby group and a partner at FRP Advisory, said the continuation of the brand would ensure that its legacy survived, despite the closure of the stores.
Denby’s international subsidiaries in the United States, China and Korea are not in administration and are expected to continue operating normally.
The company’s sister brand, Burleigh Pottery, was sold separately earlier this year, safeguarding production at Middleport Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent and protecting its workforce.
The Pottery Village is holding a final closing-down sale before trading ends on Sunday.
For generations of local families, Denby has been far more than a pottery brand. It has provided jobs, friendships and a strong sense of pride, with some families having several generations work at the site. Sunday’s closure is likely to be an especially emotional moment for Denby’s current and former employees, who have helped build and protect its reputation over more than two centuries.
Will you be visiting Denby Pottery Village for a final time before it closes?