Portmeirion Pottery

{{Infobox company

| name = Portmeirion Group PLC

| logo = Black-portmeirion-logo.png

| logo_upright = 0.8

| type = Public

| traded_as = {{LSE|PMP}}

| ISIN = {{ISIN|sl=n|pl=y|GB0006957293}}

| foundation = 1960

| founder = Susan Williams-Ellis, Euan Cooper-Willis

| location_city = Stoke-on-Trent

| location_country = England

| key_people = {{plainlist|

Mike Raybould (Chief Executive)
Dick Steele (Chairman)

}}

| industry = Pottery

| products = Homeware

| revenue = GBP 92 million

| revenue_year = 2019

| operating_income = GBP 7.5 million

| income_year = 2019

| net_income = GBP 5.8 million

| net_income_year = 2019

| assets = GBP 82 million

| assets_year = 2019

| equity = GBP 48 million{{cite report |author= Portmeirion Group|date= 2020-03-18|title= Annual Report and Accounts 2019 - Portmeirion Group plc|url=https://www.portmeiriongroup.com/download_file/force/233/230 |publisher= Portmeirion Group plc}}

| equity_year = 2019

| num_employees = 847

| subsid = {{flatlist|

Nambé International
Pimpernel
Portmeirion
Royal Worcester
Spode
Wax Lyrical England

}}

| homepage = [https://www.portmeiriongroup.com/ portmeirion.com]

}}

Portmeirion is a British pottery company based in Stoke-on-Trent, England. They specialise in earthenware tableware.'Portmeirion Pottery' S. Jenkins, S. P. McKay. Richard Dennis. 2000'Portmeirion' W. Farmer, R. Higgins. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012{{cite web | url=https://www.portmeirion.co.uk/portmeirion-botanic-garden-32-piece-set-made-in-england | title=Botanic Garden 32 Piece Dinner Set }}

History

Portmeirion Pottery began in 1960 when pottery designer Susan Williams-Ellis (daughter of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, who created the Italian-style Portmeirion Village in North Wales) and her husband, Euan Cooper-Willis, took over a small pottery-decorating company in Stoke-on-Trent called A. E. Gray Ltd, also known as Gray's Pottery. Susan Williams-Ellis had been working with A.E. Gray for some years, commissioning designs to sell at the gift shop in Portmeirion Village, the items bearing the backstamp "Gray's Pottery Portmeirionware". In 1961, the couple purchased a second pottery company, Kirkhams Ltd, that had the capacity to manufacture pottery, and not only decorate it. These two businesses were combined and Portmeirion Potteries Ltd was born.

Susan Williams-Ellis' early Portmeirion designs included Malachite (1960), Moss Agate (1961) and Talisman (1962).{{Cite web|url=https://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro_style/ceramics/portmeirion/portmeirion.php|title=Portmeirion pottery in the 60s|website=www.retrowow.co.uk|access-date=2019-11-18}} In 1963, she created the popular design Totem, an abstract pattern based on primitive forms coupled with a cylindrical shape.

She later created Magic City (1966) and Magic Garden (1970), but arguably Portmeirion's most recognised design is the Botanic Garden range, decorated with a variety of floral illustrations adapted from Thomas Green's Universal or-Botanical, Medical and Agricultural Dictionary (1817), and looking back to a tradition begun by the Chelsea porcelain factory's "botanical" designs of the 1750s. It was launched in 1972 and, with new designs added periodically, is still made today,Jenkins & Mckay Portmeirion Pottery (2000) the most successful ceramics series of botanical subjects."Botanic Garden" is no. 5 in "Appendix A: 100 Most Popular Patterns" listed from the records of Replacements.com and illustrated in Shax Riegler. 2011. Dish: 813 Colorful, Wonderful Dinner Plates pp256ff. More recent designs have included Sophie Conran's Crazy Daisy and Dawn Chorus.

On 23 April 2009, Portmeirion Potteries Ltd purchased the Royal Worcester and Spode brands, after they had been placed into administration the previous November. Portmeirion Potteries has since changed its company name to Portmeirion Group to reflect this acquisition.David Johnson, [http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Pottery-s-sales-soar-buying-brands/article-3013056-detail/article.html Article in The Staffordshire Sentinel on 16.12.10, The Sentinel] The purchase did not include the manufacturing facilities of Royal Worcester or Spode. The manufacture of much of Spode's ware was returned to Britain from the Far East, to the Portmeirion Group's factory in Stoke-on-Trent.{{cite news| title=Stoke kilns fired up for Spode again| date=2009-04-24| publisher=Nortchliffe| url=http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Stoke-kilns-fired-Spode/article-936167-detail/article.html| work=Staffordshire Sentinel| access-date=2009-04-25| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090426204050/http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Stoke-kilns-fired-Spode/article-936167-detail/article.html| archive-date=2009-04-26}}

In 2019, the Victoria and Albert Museum mounted an exhibition of Portmeirion pottery.{{cite web |title=Portmeirion: Pottery Trendsetter |url=https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/p7NwDV0M/portmeirion-pottery-trendsetter |publisher=Victoria and Albert Museum |access-date=29 March 2019}}

Gallery

File:PortmeirionPomonaTasse.jpg|A Portmeirion “botanical” cup depicting strawberries

File:Portmeirion jars.jpg|Two Portmeirion “botanical” jars depicting Bigarreaux cherry and wild blackberry

File:Portmeirion Parian Ware grapevine jug three quarter face.jpg|A Portmeirion
Parian Ware ewer (circa 1987) decorated with a low-relief, grapevine pattern

File:Inscribed base of Portmeirion Parian Ware grapevine jug ,.jpg|Base of same grapevine ewer showing inscription ‘British Heritage Collection’

File:Portmeirion factory shop - geograph.org.uk - 1576272.jpg|Portmeirion's factory shop

File:PortmeirionPomona.jpg|A range of Portmerion's products