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The future of the iconic Cornish Blue tableware has been secured with the sale of TG Green to Chomette Dornberger.
TG Green is the last of the companies within The Tabletop Group to be sold off: The Tabletop Company and Mason Cash have been acquired by Rayware.
The TG Green Cornishware factory in Church Gresley, Derbyshire was closed last June, and the tableware will now be made in China.
Chomette Dornberger managing director Charles Rickards told HousewaresLive.net: “We’re going into production in May, and product will be available in the UK from July or August.
“We’re starting with 55 SKUs of just the blue to start with, and we haven’t decided whether we’re going to carry on production of the other colours.”
However, he added: “We’re having conversations with designers about new shapes and concepts for launch towards the end of spring next year.”
In the meantime, he said, product availability was “limited at the moment but we’ve acquired all the stock. We’ve got 70% of the Cornish Blue lines, we’ve got seconds and good stocks of all the other colours.”
Although the main production will be in China, Chomette Dornberger is also looking to open a micro-factory in the UK. Rickards said it could be near the old Church Gresley site or in Cornwall itself.
“It will probably employ 20 to 25 people and will involve having a factory shop and tourist centre where people can actually see the product being made,” he said.
David French, former chief executive of The Tabletop Group, told HousewaresLive.net that he was “very disappointed” that Cornish Blue was now to be made overseas.
“It’s an iconic British design and it should have stayed in the UK, but it wasn’t to be the case,” he said. However, he added that he understood that the cost of manufacturing in the UK made it unfeasible.
