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Post by lordeffinghamhunt on Jan 5, 2009 11:39:12 GMT
It looks like another pot bank as bit the dust. It makes a joke of our nick name " The Potter" it should be " The distribution Centres"
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Post by mermaidsal on Jan 5, 2009 12:20:36 GMT
Sad but true This feels like the biggest, hardest kick in the nuts for North Staffs. When Wedgwoods goes, all the things we used to be, for good or bad, go with it. I'm REALLY hoping someone British, and hopefully local, can now rescue the core business at Barlaston from being part of a multi-national and get back to the true business of making the world's finest pots.
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Post by mermaidsal on Jan 5, 2009 12:31:13 GMT
And it says a lot that this is half way down the GDB and only 25 views, even 30 years ago it would have stopped us all in our tracks. That's how much we've lost in that time.
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Post by st0kecity on Jan 5, 2009 12:37:14 GMT
Im not totally surprised by this at all. They killed the pottery industry here when they started farming ware out to Indonesia and the like. Shame, when I was a kid everyone worked on potts. My Mum used to bring home litho's and white ware and I'd sit and decorate for hours. Its all lost now.
Arent we now the Call Center capital of the UK or did I dream that?
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Post by lordeffinghamhunt on Jan 5, 2009 12:45:19 GMT
There is very little industry left now. Gone is Mitch, the mines, the steel works, 90% of the pottery and with these are the smaller firms that used to contract out to them
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Post by st0kecity on Jan 5, 2009 12:58:15 GMT
There is very little industry left now. Gone is Mitch, the mines, the steel works, 90% of the pottery and with these are the smaller firms that used to contract out to them Not just that though, wherever there was a pot bank etc there would be a row of little businesses like sandwich shops and newsagents, they all went with them as well.
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Post by Dallas Cowboy on Jan 5, 2009 14:06:24 GMT
Not the best start to the New Year, is it?
If one firm epitomised the Potteries, it was Wedgwood. With Spode biting the dust last year and now Wedgwood, just what is left of the pride of the Potteries?
Is Portmeirion still in existence?
A sad, sad day for Stoke-on-Trent.
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Post by tigger68 on Jan 5, 2009 14:20:53 GMT
if it was a bank going up the creek would the government throw money at it?why not wedgewoods?at the end of the day its bad management but if it was rolls royce or somewhere like that they would get government funding its all bollocks they don't give a shite north of watford....
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Post by jonesinamillion on Jan 5, 2009 14:40:08 GMT
just what is left of the pride of the Potteries? Wades, Steelite, Churchill, Royal Stafford, Denby, Dudsons..... Sadly not a fraction of what there once was, but it's still prestigeous to have made in Staffordshire satmped on the back, lets hope the rest can remain strong!
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Post by SuperRickyFuller on Jan 5, 2009 18:00:47 GMT
The administrators have asked the employees to not speak to the press after an hour long meeting with all staff today down at the Barlaston factory but if anyone does let anything slip.. then Wedgwood really will be in the shit legally.. apparently..
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Post by Mr_DaftBurger on Jan 5, 2009 18:05:12 GMT
It's fucking desperate. Wedgwood is one of the main things that overseas people associate our City with (after Stoke of course!). I feel like if Wedgwood goes it'll be the final nail in the coffin. Will the last one out of the city turn the light off!
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Post by santy on Jan 5, 2009 18:09:53 GMT
Isn't it another 600 - 1000 jobs to go in the area if they do go under, and 2000 to go in various areas altogether. It's a shame not only that we're losing companies like this, but the amount of jobs in this area is in freefall, I moved back to stoke in the summer but might have to leave again soon because all the jobs are disappearing.
The chances of finding someone to take on wedgewood are slim I fear, because the company must be losing substantial amounts of money and to most businessmen, is the risk really worth it?
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Post by A-teen_six_T3 on Jan 5, 2009 18:18:41 GMT
fukcing joke, so many people out of work, some pople who know nothing wlse except for wedgewood and pot making or painting or whatever.
My brother works there as a "fitter" basically electronic enginer.
If he looses his jobs, theres fuck all like it around here on the kind of money he is now...so he's gonna have travel miles
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Post by Pretty Little Boother on Jan 5, 2009 18:25:45 GMT
Not to mention that we have 5,000,000 tourists each year who are attracted by the history of the Potteries, how many of them would we lose if Wedgwood fucked off out of the area?
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Post by thepremierbanksy on Jan 5, 2009 18:31:11 GMT
The business editor of the Sentinel was on fivelive this morning and reckoned wedgewood were £350-400m in debt. You can say wedgewood suffered from mis-management or whatever other ills, but is this not just a case of there not being a demand for chinaware anymore, as illustrated by the decline of the industry as a whole? The goods produced by pottery firms are generally luxury items (household items made luxury to be more accurate), and there are many more forms of luxury for a person to spend their money on these days, most of them made out of electronics. I'm not meaning to be devil's advocate or anything, I really don't know a lot about the pottery industry for someone from Stoke (none of my family worked in it), but this just seemed an inevitability to me.
Sad really as I was always proud of us having a heritage of any sort; my contemporaries form the call centre generation of Stoke.
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Post by McLovin on Jan 5, 2009 18:38:21 GMT
Just full of warehouses and poles now.
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Post by st0kecity on Jan 5, 2009 18:39:37 GMT
Rumour has it Denby will go within weeks as well...
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Post by blurtonboy66 on Jan 5, 2009 18:40:20 GMT
Absolute terrible news, i can always remember as a kid visiting the visitor centre at wedgwoods, As a former john tams worker it saddens me to see the pottery industry recieve another hammer blow
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Post by Huddysleftfoot on Jan 5, 2009 21:41:29 GMT
Blame it all on the free market economy, enshrined by Thatcher and kept alive by nu Labour....nothing surprises me anymore. for what it's worth the glass making industry in Stourbridge where I lived for 14 years suffered the same fate, only sooner.
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Post by armitagestokie on Jan 6, 2009 9:04:21 GMT
Debenams,Next,Wedgewood,Woolies,Adams----We'll just have GIANT Tesco,Asda and Lidl's
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Post by Deleted on Jan 6, 2009 10:37:10 GMT
'Blame it all on the free market economy'
Why? Has that stopped people from buying Wedgwood?
It's about as fashionable as an Austin Allegro these days and that's one of the main reasons why it's knackered.
When was the last time you decided to buy any Wedgwood firsts?
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Post by Tubes on Jan 6, 2009 13:32:55 GMT
Blame it all on the free market economy, enshrined by Thatcher and kept alive by nu Labour.... easy to blame government, but how many newly-weds nowadays want a fine china dinner set? More likely to want an espresso machine and a wide screen telly. The problem is not government but the fall of demand for fine quality pottery.
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Post by st0kecity on Jan 6, 2009 13:42:05 GMT
Thing is, how many of us here actually own any wedgwood crocks? I dont, and if I wanted a wedgwood dinner set I certainly couldnt afford it. Lets be honest here and admit that most of the locally produced stuff we own (crocks, figures etc) are either seconds or fallen off the back of a lorry, because put simply, as an area the majority of us have never been affluent enough to buy these things.
Its something that has been coming for a few years, gone are the days when people bought expensive dining sets to pass down through generations because this generation is happy with a microwave meal.
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Post by myleftboot on Jan 6, 2009 13:43:19 GMT
Mate of mine who works in the job centre reckons that some firms could be using the credit crunch as an excuse to shut up shop and cut their losses. The problem is it is just so unfair under any circumstance on the workers. Rise in unemployment and a decrease in local jobs will mean tough times for Staffordshire as a whole.
Who remembers the old potteries saying "you brek em and we'll make em". Such sad news.
Hang in there lads.
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Post by lew86 on Jan 6, 2009 13:58:16 GMT
Isnt it just the Waterford group thats in the shit? Wedgewood should easily find a buyer although the same was said about Woolies )
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Post by SuperRickyFuller on Jan 6, 2009 20:36:10 GMT
Isnt it just the Waterford group thats in the shit? Wedgewood should easily find a buyer although the same was said about Woolies ) Pretty much but the debts that Waterford have are running the whole company into oblivion. The company has 30 days to find a buyer, or else that's that. Even the plants in the Far East go as well..
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Post by rhodesy on Jan 6, 2009 22:12:49 GMT
Really sad Loved visiting it when I was young!
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Post by SuperRickyFuller on Jan 12, 2009 15:52:50 GMT
That's pretty much it now for Wedgwoods. They've let a load of people go today, including me Mum. My Mum had signed for her redundancy in late November and was due to finish in the next few weeks but with them letting her go now she's lost £11000 I'm absolutely fucking livid. The union have done sod all to protect her/and others' money which was agreed and signed for and my Mum could've really done with this money as she struggles as it is. She's come home in absolute floods of tears and it breaks me heart to see her like this So after 21 years of service and loyalty from me Mum.. this is her thank you.. you bunch of fucking cunts
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Post by lew86 on Jan 12, 2009 16:08:02 GMT
fucking hell mate, really sorry to hear that. I hope she manages to get something back. Fancy getting treatment like that. fucking shame on them.
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Post by neworleanstokie on Jan 12, 2009 16:21:49 GMT
My dad worked for Wedgwoods 25+ years and retired when Waterford took over the company.I also had the opportunity of a career with W after having worked there on school holidays but turned it down to go to college. I never came back to Stoke due to the lack of employment opp's. W is a niche manufacturer not mass market. That is simpy why the company losts it way. It wasn't able to make the paradigm shift and sadly many many peoples lives are now affected. I think there is still a future for W in Barlaston but on a much smaller scale. If I was taking over what left of W I'd sell the offshore operations and scale back the UK to appeal to a smaller but more affluent consumer. The brand still has tremendous value
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