Royal Doulton
Oct 3rd, 2006, in Business & Economy, by PatungThe Royal Doulton Company is happy with its investment in Indonesia and plans to put another $125 million into its operations here.
Sir Anthony O’Reilly, the chairman of Waterford Wedgwood Plc., the owner of the Royal Doulton brand, met with president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the presidential palace in Jakarta on the 2nd and announced that Waterford Wedgwood/Royal Doulton, a manufacturer of ceramic and china dinnerware, would expand its factory at Tangerang, Banten (western Java, near Jakarta) at a cost of 125 million US dollars.
Waterford Wedgwood, which apart from its famous Royal Doulton china cups, plates, and saucers also produces figurines, has two factories in Asia, with the other being located in India. However, according kompas to Trade minister Mari Pangestu’s recollection of conversations with Sir Anthony, Indonesia is the preferred location due to the workforce here being more skillful and patient. 150,000 Royal Doulton branded pieces are produced each week at the Indonesian factory.
Ninety-seven percent of the output of Royal Doulton’s Indonesian operations are exported, at an annual value of around $30 million. With the new investment, which will also see the development of some research and design facilities, carried out over three years, the company has hopes that this figure will double.
Sir Anthony O’Reilly said on May 20th 2007 that the company plans to raise its ceramic wares production capacity in Indonesia from 6 million to 12 million pieces per year, with manpower requirements going up from 1,350 at present to about 2,000, and a further $25 million being invested.
74 Comments on “Royal Doulton”
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Barbara Munro says:
I bought a set of cup, saucer and plates of Brambly Hedge by Royal Doulton for my Granddaughter as a special gift and as a small investment for her, from Myers Queensland, Australia, and was very surprised to see it was made in Indonesia, is the quality and the value be the same as if produced in England?
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Mr N Edwards says:
In Stoke On Trent there has been many factory closures due to the factories abroad for cheaper production, I wont buy Doulton or Wedgwood on the principal has it has caused major unemployment in the UK. Everything is foreign made. I only buy British. You should not be allowed to use the name Royal Douton. You should be called Doulton Internanational it was the workmanship of the English that gave it an excellent reputation now it just not the same.
Thank you
N. Edwards -
David Ridge says:
Reading the comments above, the most disappointing thing i read is continual investment in indonesia by Doulton/Wedgwood and no investment in holding up its failing interests in Stoke on Trent. Bad management Crooked directors and a very badly run site in stoke on trent has led to a move abroad Tony O’Rielly sort your leadership in stoke on trent out stop them stealing from you and get them making money instead of taking it from the business and locality
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Merdewi says:
I’m glad the factory has moved to Indonesia to make this famous porcelain because form where I live its easier for me to purchase these items than having to order them form UK.
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Jack Downing says:
Who is the current Manager of Royal Doulton Facilities in Indonesia, and an address whereby I can sent correspondence?
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lina says:
Dear Merdewi,
Where can we buy /purchase Royal Doulton item?..is there any factory outlet where i can visit ?
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Purba Negoro says:
Wonderful!
Good to see some good news hear- although I am sad if the British worker is being supplanted for profiteering.
Schadenfreude. -
pitchag says:
We are collectable dealers in Australia, and we find there is a definate reluctance from our customers to buying new Doulton The quality is way below the the english made product.
My wife is a collector of Beswick and will not buy Asian produced beswick it is so badly made and painted, we as collectors and retailers regards the Asian product as sub-standard rubbish -
Pitchbag…
I would have thought that the quality control elements would be the responsibility of the company. Perhaps the question is why do companies take their production off-shore and then allow “sub-standard rubbish” to be produced.
Ultimately, you and the wife may one day not have the option of buying English made product because there will be no English factories producing it. So, you will be exclusively collectors and antique dealers, I guess.
Jack…
The Royal Doulton Indonesian subsidiary is managed out of Hong Kong if I am not mistaken. The Indonesian operations are under the banner of PT. Doulton Multifortuna
The Address is:
Jl. Raya Serang Km. 29,9 Desa Gembong, Balaraja, Tangerang, Banten
(62-21) 5951329hope this helps…
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sorry…Pitchag
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Andrea says:
Production moves to Indonesia because consumers will not buy the product at prices that would have to be charged for UK produced product. These are companies fighting to survive; they don’t choose to shift production to cheaper locations out of greed.
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Nonsense.
They merely want higher profit margins.
If it was truly a case of survival- their CEO’s would sacrifice their multi-million dollar salary packages for the sake of the business.Globalisation= wage slavery.
The West has only itself to blame. -
Oigal says:
Globalisation= wage slavery.
The West has only itself to blameSo PN you are a supporter of protectionist duties and taxes for european and US farm producers?
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Oigal,
you think yourself rather cunning do you not. But it is a foolish argument argued from ignorance which will blow up in your face.I am not a supporter of OVERLY protectionist tarriffs we see in the US and the EU, no.
I am fervently opposed to the subsequent dumping of excess food into Africa which destroys their agrarian economies, impoverishes millions of farmers and keeps Africa from ever joining the rest of humanity due to total Western devastation of any native African economes from barest grass roots upwards.But- you did not realise those who benefit from the tariffs are not the village farmer nor even medium size property freeholder- BUT commercial industrial conglomerates.
The small land-holder is in fact impoverished in the EU- please ask the any Country or Farmers’ Party to substantiate this argument.
Exactly like the US with its corn subsidies.
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Mets says:
Higher profit margins pure and simple thats why they moved the operations to Indonesia, minimum wage in the UK (£5.26 – I think) equates to 1 Royal Doulton dessert plate that is on sale!!!
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Canadian says:
I’ve been a collector for 30 years of Royal Albert China Old Country Roses pattern and am very disappointed Royal Doulton has joined the throngs of “profit-mongers” who have chosen to make their product in Asia. The English made bone china was superb and worth every penny. I inadvertently ordered an item from eBay not realizing it was Asian made. Putting this item beside “the real thing from England” was obvious; the Asian made one both in quality and appearance was truly substandard to the English made one. It was like putting a Rolls Royce beside a “hunk of junk”. In fact, the day I saw an eight piece table setting of Old Country Roses being sold at Costco for about $100.00 Canadian left me sick to my stomach. What’s next? Selling my beautiful china pattern in a Dollar Store. By the way, I’m searching the world to buy “Made in England” only pieces. It’s a sad day for Royal Doulton if you ask me!!
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John Gault says:
Canada
You mention Rolls Royce. You know of course that they are no longer English
These changes are just memetic evolution in action, they will never cease. It is so poetic in this the 200th year of Charles Darwins birth
Get over it, move on. Good luck to the Indonesians, I hope they do well. The Poms have used and abused the rest of the world since the start of the industrial revolution. One of their greatest achievements in this time has been the whingeing Pom. They have been extremely successful in exporting this to all corners of the globe including of course Canada
Or would you prefer to hand the world over to the Luddites (a Pom initiative) and turn the world back several hundred years when everything was so much better, not. -
James Kennedy says:
YUCK.I just received some Royal Albert ordered through Sears and it is this terrible Indonesian junk! It was obvious from picking it up out of the box that this wasn’t Royal Albert…heavy. I put it on the counter to compare it to one of my real Royal Albert Bristol mugs and it is not a match. Sure it has the same transfer pattern (Memory Lane), but the shape is wrong – the rim isn’t as flared, and the mug is slightly shorter than the real ones. The colour is also more cream than it should be. The Indonesian stuff is no good for matching pieces to an existing set, because it just isn’t the same thing.
I don’t really care about the global economics of, I’d just like to add some more pieces to my nice china set. This Indonesian stuff feels like stoneware, a low grade stoneware at that. I agree with the poster upthread who said that it’s like seeing your good china pattern counterfeited and sold out the Dollar Store.
This is going back to Sears and I’ll just keep watching ebay.
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Burung Koel says:
I don’t really care about the global economics
Just as long as you get a cheap price, I suppose.
(signed)
c. 1817
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Connita says:
I helped to open a Royal Doulton shop about 5 years ago, and worked there until they closed suddenly (overnight) with absolutely no notice to its employees, breaking their lease and shocking and disappointing its many loyal customers. We were a very successful store, often ranking at the very top in sales throughout the company. I have worked in retail off & on for over 40 years, and was a teacher for more than 15 years, but I had never worked harder, both physically and in terms of effort, than I did there. The same was true of everyone else in that store, some of whom had been with the company for many, many years. None of that counted for anything in the long run. What a deeply shameful way for what was once a respected business to end its days.
Sadly, from the time we opened our doors, we were flooded with complaints from long-time owners of Royal Doulton china about the negative differences between their treasured pieces, Made in England, and the shoddy things coming out of Indonesia. I can’t count the number of times that we had a counter full of carefully chosen dishes, potentially amounting to thousands of dollars in sales and hours of customer service, only to have the customer turn a dish over, see “Made in Indonesia,” and walk away in disgust. The same thing happened repeatedly with our figurines, now made in Thailand.
As for the assertion that moving production overseas was done to keep costs down for customers – BUNK!!! Prices rose steadily on everything, often actually doubling – ostensibly in order to appear to be offering greater discounts during sales. This backfired spectacularly — especially among those who shopped there regularly. Of course, they were shocked to find the same pieces they had paid less for a short time before, priced much higher when they returned to buy more. Of course, they didn’t buy! First time shoppers took one look at the prices and walked away as well, despite signs promising 40% – 70% discounts. The initial sticker shock apparently blinded them to the potential “savings” touted through these “sales.”
We all know that tastes change, and that certainly had an effect on our sales over time, but as the majority of our customers were either recent immigrants celebrating their new-found affluence or long-time older customers and their children, all of whom loved Royal Doulton for the history and quality they had long treasured.
Once again, greed (the love of money) shows itself to be truly the root of all evil.
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vanduongkhanh says:
Dear Sir,
We are Vietnamese company with import ceramic business, im really interested in your ceramic product.
we would like to know list of your ceramic product : tile for floor, tile for wall ..etc, we want to be your distributor in Viet Nam, in case you want to overwide your products into Viet Nam market.
we are happy if you feedback to me about information or price list in referance.
Thanks & Best regards
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Wanda Howe says:
I bought some Bunnykins Made in China. It does not have the same quality as Made in England or the same cache. Look carefully at your products made in China and compare them to previous products made in England. I will not buy Made in China Royal Doulton Corning or anything else. If I am paying that much for a gift I rather support the industry in Europe or North America. Are any of your products made in England anymore?
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Kathy says:
I did not know that Royal Doulton is now manufacturing in Indonesia. I have two “Top of the Hill” pieces – one with the green English Mark and another with the Royal Doulton name, but have not been able to find the mark on the second one for ID purposes. I guess now I know why! The workmanship on the piece with the green mark on the bottom is far superior to the smaller one with the mystery mark on the bottom.
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Angelina says:
We spent years trying to fill out my mother’s Royal Albert Memory Lane china set and were dismayed to notice that the last two years’ worth of orders were made in Indonesia. Comparing the older pieces to the newer ones there is a definite drop in quality – the Indonesian made is thicker and slightly heavier. The pattern looks almost pixally and the pink colours have been completely removed.
We have decided to not complete the set unless we can get English-made china, which will most likely mean second-hand.
This is just another sad story in the sacrifice of tradition, quality and pride for greater profit.
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noel says:
“There is nothing in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and he who considers price only is that man’s lawful prey.”
-John Ruskin 1819-1900 -
Paul says:
I am dissapointed that Royal Doulton is now not made in England. I don’t have anything against Indonesia and may buy some china made there but not Royal Doulton manufactured there. The brand includes the history and quality that goes with it. Once that is severed then it is no longer the name brand but a couterfeit and not worth the money paid for it.
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Helga O'Sullivan says:
I have recently bought a “25th anniversary mug” Royal Doulton Brambly Hedge on E-bay and was disappointed to see that it was “made in Indonesia” as the quality is just not the same, the colours are dull and the glazing as well – so definitely not worth while !
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joan shanfield says:
I own a china shop in Windsor Ontario Canada Shanfields-Meyers that has been selling Royal Doulton figures and dishes for 71 years. all of our product is made in England because we have not bought new stock in the last 2 years. we are closing shop due to the death of my dad and the fact that our family is aging. ai noticed in the price books from the 1970-1990 prices increasing at the rate of 200%. i could not believe that a 5pc placesetting that was $69 in 1970 is now priced at $350. that is a tremendous price increase and of course Doulton priced themselves out of the market. we are still in business and all of you complaining about out sourced goods and not being able to find made in England please give us a shout we are the largest stock holder (as in dishes and figures) in Canada.
519-252-9702 and yes prices are discounted because of the closing 70-90% off -
Ajokz Kurnia says:
Consumer is a consumer
what they know about a production?You think!
same raw material
same machine
same proceduredifferent country. no matters!
so what makes different is not about made in Indonesia or made in UK!
it’s about different raw materialso, if it were still made in UK, the quality would still be different from before.
I am Indonesian. I Love Indonesia. But I said the truth.
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If this is a true report, why I never see the Waterford Wedgwood’s products has marked with “made in Indonesia”?