Ceramacist Fran Hartill in the mold room at Moorcroft pottery factory in Stoke-on-Trent, UK.
Photographer: Tom Skipp/BloombergStoke’s Potters Are Drowning in Costs Crippling UK Manufacturing
Under pressure from soaring energy prices and labor costs, Britain’s ceramics industry has become a political football ahead of the elections.
Everywhere you look in Stoke-on-Trent, a city fondly known as the Potteries, are signs of its rich history in the ceramics industry. The road names, the old factory chimneys that were symbols of its dominance during the Industrial Revolution, and even the English city’s football club, whose nickname is “The Potters.”
“When you’re born and bred in Stoke-on-Trent, that’s where you work,” said Sharon Yates, who attaches the handles for Dunoon, a local maker of china mugs. “You’re born into it.”