Staffordshire Potteries
1949 49% of shares of Keele Street Pottery Group sold to South Western Industrial Gas and Water Corporation
1950 Keele Street Pottery's name was changed to Staffordshire Potteries Limited
1951 Became a quoted public company
1951-1955 Leases taken on hangars at disused Meir Airport.
1955 South Western Industrial and Water Corporation was split into 2 groups - one of which had all the pottery interests and was called Staffordshire Potteries (Holdings) Ltd; the other group took all the metal and engineering interests[1]
1955 Acquired Collingwood China Ltd[2]
during 1950s Paramount Pottery closed. Staffordshire Potteries became the largest producer of utilitarian white cups, also manufacturing Blue Band kitchen ware and dinner and tea wares.
1963 Thomas Cone and Conway Pottery closed. All production, sales and administration concentrated at Meir. During the 1960s and 1970s the company concentrated on the production of mugs, kitchen and dinner wares.
1972 Kilncraft brand name introduced for a new range of modern shapes, colours and surface decorations. This range was so successful that the name and trade mark was adopted as the corporate symbol for Staffordshire Potteries Ltd.
1976 Factory shop opened at Meir
1979 Acquisition of Royal Winton, manufacturers of vases, giftware and planters.
1979 Staffordshire Potteries (Holdings) Ltd. acquired Taunton Vale Industries (tableware & kitchen accessories) and Salt and McKee (Toronto), which was renamed Canadian Classic Fine Bone China Ltd. Both closed in 1980
1981 A new range of red stoneware "cook and serve" dinner wares and cookwares was produced, specially designed for microwave ovens. However, by 1983, this range had been abandoned in favour of more delicate, pastel colours.
1984 Supplier to Marks and Spencer
1986 Bought by Coloroll Group, who had also acquired Biltons Tableware of Stoke-on-Trent.
See Also
Sources of Information
- History of the Potteries [1]