Sales at pottery giant Portmeirion have increased by more than 50 per cent on the same time last year as the company continues to bounce back from the pandemic.
The Stoke manufacturer – which also owns the Spode, Royal Worcester, Pimpernel, Wax Lyrical and Nambe brands – says it has had an "excellent" start the year after seeing sales to April 30, 2021 increase by more than 50 per cent on 2020.
Sales are also “slightly ahead” of pre-Covid levels achieved in the first four months of 2019.
Portmeirion chief executive Mike Raybould said: “Despite some ongoing Covid-related disruptions to our sales markets and supply chains in the first part of 2021, we are delighted to see the benefits of continued sales momentum and of our strategic programmes starting to feed through to our trading.
“Our sales are traditionally weighted seasonally to the second half. However we are pleased to see our strong finish to 2020 continue through to the start of 2021.”
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Mr Raybould added: “We have developed a pipeline of exciting new products that launch during 2021 which, together with our ongoing investments behind our digital infrastructure and operational capabilities, means we are confident about the opportunities to grow our brands around the world.”
In 2020, Portmeirion’s revenue and profits both fell following what bosses described as a “challenging year” for the business.
Revenue was down almost £5 million, dropping from £92.8 million in 2019 to £87.2 million in 2020.
At the same time, profit fell by £6 million from £7.4 million to £1.4 million.
