Could Duchess China investment help put Stoke ceramics back on the world stage?

Plus City Centre Masterplan for Hanley goes to cabinet, first tile laid at covid memorial in Spode Works, and championing a trio of pottery apprentices thanks to a new scheme

Oct 12, 2026

A Gladstone Cockpit Blue collection teapot, gilded with 18-carat gold

🥨 A word from Helen, editor/writer at The Knot

Hi, how‘s it going? Welcome to another week of The Knot’s positive news round-up from across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire – bringing you a little dose of good news to brighten up your Monday.

We’re sure you’re thrilled, like us, to hear of the recent investment in Duchess China from Open to Ideas, which has injected a “high” six-figure sum into the business.

The pottery firm has said the investment will help secure the future of the brand, helping it grow and strengthen specialist industry skills. “This isn’t about changing what makes Duchess China special, it’s about recognising how special it already is and giving the support and investment to realise its potential,” they added.

Local MP Allison Gardner has said that it will protect skilled jobs, develop talent, and give a cherished Stoke-on-Trent business the opportunity to grow internationally.

Read our interview below with Open to Ideas co-founder, Rob Ward, on its hopes for Duchess and the ambitious idea to turn Stoke into a global brand led by our potteries.

Good News 🎉

🏺 THE KNOT’S PEOPLE OF THE WEEK – pottery apprentices Chloe Walker, Matthew Jones and Rebecca Day🏺

The Craft Technician apprenticeship was launched earlier this year by the team at Emma Bridgewater, which partnered with fellow manufacturers across Stoke-on-Trent, with support from Ceramics UK and Skills England, to set up the scheme delivered by Creative Alliance. The first cohort to undertake the apprenticeship, including Rebecca Day, Matthew Jones, and Chloe Walker (pictured below), have learned practical skills and techniques including hand-building, sculpting, throwing, and casting, and a plaster and mould-making placement with Mark Marchant of MM Mouldmaking. Over the past four months, the apprentices have learned about raw materials through workshops hosted by Saint Gobains Formula, Global Ceramics Materials, Valentine Clays and Vibrantz Performance Coatings in Stoke-on-Trent and the Peak District. They will also study computer-aided design, cutting tiles, sponging, and stamping as part of the scheme.

Ceramics apprentices Rebecca Day, from 1882 Ltd and Matthew Jones, from Emma Bridgewater, tidy up after making three-part moulds for bud vases. Chloe Walker, an apprentice at Emma Bridgewater, preparing to pour into a mould. Pics: Mark Marchant

🌹Labour wins by-election in Newcastle. After Reform councillor Christine Duffy resigned in August, Labour & Co-operative Party Andrew Fox-Hewitt won a Town ward seat on the borough council with 431 votes. In second place was Reform’s Adam Griffiths, with 249 votes; the rest were as follows: Mark Allan Jones, Green Party (115); Conna Douglas Eynon, Conservative Party (110); and Morgan Inwood, Liberal Democrats (27). Reform now has 26 seats, Conservatives 15 and Labour 3. Full details of the results are available here.
🏗️ City Centre Masterplan goes to Cabinet. Plans to transform Hanley are set to take a step forward, with a City Centre Masterplan going to the city council’s Cabinet next week. If approved, it will set out a short and long-term vision to transform Hanley into a vibrant place where people want to live, work, study, visit and invest. The short-term vision includes plans to build 750 new homes on brownfield city centre sites, with an additional 1,800 people living in the city centre leading to increased footfall by 2030.
☕️ First tile laid at Covid memorial inside Spode. Bereaved families have taken the first steps in creating a permanent Covid-19 memorial by attending the project’s inaugural memorial tile-making workshop at SpodeWorks. Led by local artist Philip Hardaker, the workshop brought together eight families to create ceramic tiles in memory of loved ones lost during the pandemic. The individually designed tiles will form part of a permanent ceramic memorial bench to be installed in Bethesda Gardens. The memorial project was secured following a campaign led by Lynn Jones MBE, who lost her husband, Gareth, to Covid in 2021. You can join a tile-making sessions to honour a loved one here.

From left: Gareth Snell, Lynne Jones and Susan Alocock laying the first tile at Spode for the covid memorial

😃 Our Top Five Don’t-Miss Events this Week. Featuring international food stalls plus global artisan products, gifts, clothing, and jewellery, don’t miss the Hanley Continental Street Market (05/11-08/11,10am-6pm; 4pm Sun).
Celebrate Diwali at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery (31/10, 11am-5.30pm), with traditional music, dance and craft activities; admission free. The Cavern Club Story (20/11, 7.30pm) brings the story of one of the world’s most iconic music venues to life; tickets from £38.48.
Couple of festive events: Stoke Minster will welcome G4 Christmas 2026 on 03/12 for a night of festive merriment; tickets from £17.50. The Winter Light Trail returns to Trentham Gardens next month (20/11-03/01), with new installations, an après bar, fire-pit marshmallow toasting, and fairground rides; tickets from £17 for adults and £12.50 for children and seniors.

Investor Open to Ideas sees the potential in Duchess China. We ask co-founder Rob Ward about his vision for the brand

Words: Helen Dalley

Rob Ward, co-founder of boutique financing firm Open to Ideas, has just invested in Duchess China

Investing in Duchess China for London-based private holding and investment company Open to Ideas was something of a no-brainer after founders Rob Ward and Kieran Donovan met Jason Simms and Andy Tooth, who’ve led the day-to-day operations of the company since 2019, when they acquired the business from Mantec Group.

“Jason’s brilliant with clients and he’s fantastically creative. Andy runs the pottery, he’s been in it his whole life, 38 years, working for Duchess or one form of it all the way through the shop floor.” He adds that they’ve done a “fantastic” job of keeping the business going during some turbulent periods, including covid and a cost-of-living crisis.

The boutique investment firm, which backs creative British businesses across consumer goods, retail, and sports, has invested a “high six-figure” sum into the business under a ‘buy and hold’ model, which means investing primarily via equity rather than loading companies with debt. “It’s a commercial venture, but the primary objective is to get the businesses up and running and not to return the fund. If you do the former, then the latter should follow.”

How exactly will this investment help in the day-to-day running of the business? “We want to take a bit of a weight off them with strategy and operational support so they can be brilliant at what they do,” he explains, adding that they see plenty of potential. “There is demand for good British goods abroad. Fine bone China made in Stoke means something, and made in England, too, means a lot to people around the world.”

The investment means Duchess has also been able to restructure the balance sheet and put equity into the business to secure its long-term future, with cash generated from sales invested in people and machinery, says Ward. While he hopes that, over time, there can be pay rises, he admits that energy costs remain an issue.

This May, the government announced a £120 million support package for the pottery industry. Ward says, however, that this can work against companies like Duchess China. “If, say, they give you £100,000, you may have to put in £50,000, or £75,000. Big companies that have got liquidity can actually benefit from that, but for smaller businesses, you still have to find some money, so it’s not like free money. So, we may or may not be able to do the price match,” he admits.

Ward is hopeful that the investment can create new jobs and apprenticeships in the long term. “What we’ve got to do is get the business running profitably. Once things have stabilised, then in a couple of years, we may be in a position to offer apprentice positions. Duchess staff want to know where the next generation is coming from.”

Duchess China has previously worked with some big names: David Hockney, Keith Brymer Jones and Belmond. What collaborations can we expect next? “While there are few classic Duchess designs like Dot Rose, Gladstone and Peony, it’s a bit of a blank canvas, and that’s the beauty of it. It’s not like Burleigh and its beautiful patterns, for example – what we make are white plates, and it’s about making that contemporary.” He is keen to stress that the remit is wider than just working with artists and creative brands, referencing the recent order of a tableware set of more than 1,300 pieces from JCB as important, too.

Now that investment is in place, Ward hopes that Duchess China can expand its international reach and says that while no analysis on markets has been conducted yet, Japan is a place of interest. “We get quite a lot of Japanese visitors and inquiries, and bone china is a big thing over there. And then I know the US market relatively well, and Americans are interested in heritage and crafts, so they’re probably the big places. There are lots of opportunities in Europe as well, I think places like Portugal.”

With no targeted return from Open to Ideas for the Duchess China brand, Ward says it’s about working ‘hand in hand’ with Jason and Andy. “There’s no tension as we’re not having to hit a certain number. We will have a business plan, but we’ll build it with them. It will be a sensible, sustainable investment plan, which, in five to 10 years’ time, if we do it right, will get some positive returns.”

Ward has previously said that Britain sometimes talks about manufacturing as something it used to do. What does he think Stoke needs to do to ensure ceramics remains a viable industry here for the next generation? “My initial thought would be two things. Energy costs are key for potteries because, we fire things at very high temperatures, which costs a huge amount and consumes a lot of energy. So, the government needs to help and do something about energy prices. And secondly, I think internationally, there’s an opportunity for Stoke.

“The city stands for one thing, globally, and that’s potteries. I think there’s an opportunity to create a brand globally. You don’t want to Disneyfy it, but I think there’s a trend for people wanting authentic experiences, not just looking through the glass at something that used to be made a hundred years ago. And I think that there’s nothing more real than a pottery manufactory. There are real people doing real jobs in unpolished places with beautiful brick buildings that are hundreds of years old.”

A global brand formed around the potteries and their history would mean Stoke stands for something, he says. “[International visitors coming to the UK] then don’t just whizz up to York or Edinburgh; some will stop and come across to Stoke and spend a day visiting the potteries.”

To ensure this can happen, Ward says we need government-coordinated action and support from the council, something he’s happy to lead on. But in the meantime, Ward says they are focused on stabilising Duchess China as a business, “building on all the great work that has been done and growth for the future.”

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