Historic pottery brand Denby has fired its last pieces in the kiln as 217 years of production came to an end. Founded in 1809, Denby had been producing ceramics from Derbyshire clay but was plunged into administration in March after struggles against the cost of energy and labour. Despite reported interest in buying the brand, a video on Thursday showed some of the final products being wheeled to the kiln.
Historic pottery brand Denby has fired its last pieces in the kiln as 217 years of production came to an end. Founded in 1809, Denby had been producing ceramics from Derbyshire clay but was plunged into administration in March after struggles against the cost of energy and labour.
Despite reported interest in buying the brand, a video on Thursday showed some of the final products being wheeled to the kiln. More than 130 jobs have been lost at the company since administrators were called in. In a video posted on social media an employee, Roger, who has worked at Denby for 54 years, could be seen pushing a trolley of clay bowls and vases to the kiln while colleagues applauded.
Underneath the video the company wrote: Centuries of making pottery at Denby may be coming to a close, but the love and soul poured into each piece will live on. Denby would not have been able to continue for this long without generations of dedicated, skilled people, from the kilns to customers' homes and all the pairs of hands in between.
Thank you to every member of staff, past and present, for playing your part in taking care of this piece of history. The future is always uncertain and whilst it's hard to comprehend what things may look like in the next weeks and months, we are so hugely proud of everything this Derbyshire pottery has achieved. It's not and has never just been about the pots.
Founded in 1809, Denby had been producing ceramics from Derbyshire clay but was plunged into administration in March after struggles against the cost of energy and labour. Rishi Sunak pictured with Denby potters during a visit to the factory during the general election campaign in June 2024. An aerial view of the Denby pottery factory in Derbyshire where more than 130 jobs have been lost since administrators were called in.
In a farewell video Denby called the closure hard to comprehend and thanked customers and employees for their support across the centuries. Since its founding, Denby has always handcrafted its products, with more than 20 workers touching each piece. Its founder William Bourne discovered high quality Derbyshire clay and originally produced salt-glazed bottles which went on to be exported worldwide in the 1830s.
Famous for the buy well, buy once motto, Denby offered a ten-year guarantee on its hard-wearing stone collections called the Collectors Promise. The Derbyshire company's ceramic pieces were known for their heft and durability - a woman wrote to Denby after her home in the US was flattened by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to say their pottery were the only items to survive the storm.
It created commemorative pieces for the coronations of King Edward VII, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II and the marriage of King Charles to Princess Diana. Its spiral into administration was called a man-made tragedy by Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, who blamed Energy Secretary Ed Miliband's Net Zero targets for pushing businesses to the wall. A petition to save the brand reached 101,000 signatures, enough to secure a debate in Parliament.
Last week This is Money reported that Home Bargains was looking to buy the company, with a deal potentially including the Denby brand. A process run by the insolvency firm FRP Advisory is said to have drawn interest from a number of other homewares chains in recent weeks, according to Sky News. Home Bargains is owned by Tom Morris, a Labour donor and businessman from Liverpool.
In a video posted on social media an employee, Roger, who has worked at Denby for 54 years, could be seen pushing a trolley of clay bowls and vases to the kiln while colleagues applauded. Since its founding, Denby has always handcrafted its products, with more than 20 workers touching each piece. From 1900 to the 1920s, Joseph Bourne Wheeler modernised Denby Pottery by expanding coloured glaze collections and ceasing salt-glazing.
During the 1960s and 70s, Denby led the oven-to-tableware revolution and expanded internationally, acquiring its USA distributor in 1970. Morris, who owns Home Bargains' holding company TJ Morris, has become one of Britain's wealthiest retailers as a result of the rapid expansion of the chain, which now operates hundreds of stores nationwide and has plans to grow further.
Denby previously had 24 outlets dotted around Britain, including a 16,700 sq ft pottery village flagship in Derby that had a homeware store, bistro and farm shop. International subsidiaries of Denby in Korea, the US and China are not in administration and continue to operate as normal. Craig Thomson, a GMB Union representative, previously said the closure was a disaster for Derbyshire.
Without products being made here in the UK, the brand of Denby would not have held the unique position it has held for 200 years, he said. New support for the industry changes the picture for UK ceramics, and administrators are being short-sighted in not allowing new buyers to come forward
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