Over the last year, our Senior Leadership Team has worked on a revised strategy for the Group, with three inter-connected strategic priorities - to simplify the Group; deliver attractive financial returns and unlock growth opportunities. Collectively, these priorities will reduce debt and inventory, improve gross margin and drive sales growth. This revised strategy is called Elevating Portmeirion and built on three work streams.
1) Inventory reset
The Group has built up an excess inventory position over the last few years, reflecting a combination of factors including weaker than expected end markets, a desire to maintain factory volumes for unit cost efficiency and the need to do responsible end-of-line clearance to protect brand and pricing, particularly in the Korean market. These are all being addressed with the intention of operating with a structurally lower value of inventory. This will free cash tied up in inventory, improve operational processes and reduce excessive discounting, hence enhancing brand equity.
2) Fix factory economics
Our Stoke-on-Trent factory is a core asset of the Group and a key part of the value of our brands, but its performance in recent years has been challenging both in terms of production efficiency and cost per piece. There has been a significant impact from cost inflation including minimum wage inflation, government National Insurance increases and the high energy costs in the UK. In addition, in 2025 factory efficiency saw one off impacts from both the acceleration of onshoring our Spode Christmas Tree range and planned trials to switch to a new glaze, which were subsequently reversed. The result has been gross margin erosion. During the second half of 2025, Sam Pearce (Group COO) took charge of the factory, to ensure coordination with the rest of the Group and to improve the factory economics. The early signs are encouraging and we will focus on driving further improvement in 2026, delivering improved gross margin for the Group, strategic alignment with our customers and improved inventory management.
3) Commercial model refresh
Over a number of years, the Group has experienced gross margin erosion, due to deteriorating factory economics – both lower production volumes reflecting weaker consumer markets and significant inflationary pressure, particularly on energy costs. The combination of improved factory economics, including the benefit of on-shoring production and reduced inventory balances together with refreshed brand and products, and a focus on full price sales channels (see point 1 below) will combine to support gross margin rebuild.
4) Non-core disposals
The Group has a rich heritage in ceramics and homewares and these categories will be the primary focus for the Group. The Group now considers Wax Lyrical as non-core, and, in February 2026, has put in place a new MD for the business to deliver an improved performance ahead of looking to dispose of the business. This will free up capital tied up in Wax Lyrical and allow the Group to concentrate on its core product categories where it has leading brands.
1) Fresh brand and product
As we embed our brand mindset, we will prioritise and focus on our core Spode and Portmeirion brands, striving to excite and delight our customers. Under Victoria Brabender, our new Product Strategy Director, we are refining our brand positioning, tone of voice and how we communicate our brands. Alongside this, we are refining our product ranges, implementing more structured pricing hierarchy and making commercial policy changes around off-price distribution channels. Our priority is on maximising full price sales and improving our mix through elevating our craftsmanship and product quality.
2) D2C expansion
Our direct-to-consumer distribution is built on our own stores and our own eCommerce platforms. Expansion of our own store network is not a short-term priority for the Group. Our investments will focus on significantly increasing our eCommerce business. During 2026 we will move to a single platform for our UK and US eCommerce activities, saving costs and improving efficiency. Our customer acquisition and retention strategies for the year ahead include loyalty, more exclusive products and renewed brand communications alongside our updated product offer.
3) International expansion
Today the Group has scale in three markets – UK, US and South Korea. We have a huge opportunity in many other markets that the Group operates in today. To maximise our potential success, we will prioritise five markets, including Malaysia, Germany and Australia, for growth in 2026 and beyond. Our marketing and sales resources will be focused on these markets, ensuring we partner with the best distribution and build brand awareness and a loyal customer base.
4) Capital light licence expansion
potential of our brands and we have a nascent product licensing business, which accounted for £0.2m revenue in 2025. This high margin, low capital employed business provides a great opportunity for the Group and is now an integral part of our product strategy and roadmap. We are in active discussions with a number of high quality licence partners and expect to deliver several new commercial agreements in the year ahead, the first of which is a global bedding and towels licence with Ashley Wilde.
1) Enhanced data
The Group is undertaking a detailed 3-year data roadmap to improve data quality, create Group-wide aligned master data and improve a broad range of forecasting and planning tools. Collectively, these actions will improve decision making and operational efficiency.
2) Made in Stoke
Our customers value Made in Stoke-on-Trent given our brand heritage and DNA. As many of our peers have closed production in the UK and moved offshore, we believe the Group can take advantage of our commitment to production in the UK. During 2025, we strategically re-shored production of numerous tableware product lines to Stoke-on-Trent, including one of our most successful ranges, Spode Christmas Tree range. We are actively working on additional product lines that will be reintroduced to our Stoke-on-Trent factory and we will further build specialism and craftsmanship in the UK. As we turnaround our factory economics and more closely align our brand messages around Made in Stoke-on-Trent, our competitive advantage will be strengthened.
3) Refreshed leadership team
Over the last 12 months, a series of leadership changes have been made, bringing deep industry knowledge and expertise into the Group and ensuring full alignment on our refreshed strategy – Elevating Portmeirion. Collectively, our refreshed leadership team are bringing a new energy and intensity to delivering our transformation.