Denby Pottery will continue under new ownership after FRP Advisory said a buyer had been found for the brand. That gives the Denby name a path forward even as its stores close on Sunday, including the Pottery Village in Derbyshire.
Sunday closes Denby stores
Eight stores in Ashford, Braintree, Castleford, Cheshire Oaks, Dalton Park, Denby, Portsmouth and York will shut for the last time on Sunday. Tony Wright, a joint administrator of the Denby group of companies and partner at FRP Advisory, said: "It's undoubtedly a sad moment to see the Pottery Village close after so many years as the home of this much-loved British brand."
He added: "We wanted to give shoppers and Denby enthusiasts the chance to visit one final time and take home a piece of its heritage." The closing push gives customers one last chance to buy stock from a business that has been trading since 1809, before the remaining retail sites disappear from the map.
June ended production
Denby appointed administrators in March after struggling with rising energy and labour costs. Administrators later said they had failed to find a buyer, and production ended in June. The sale now agreed changes that sequence: the stores are going, but the brand itself has been sold on.
That split matters for the business model. The stores close, the manufacturing line has already stopped, yet the name survives under a new owner. For customers, that means the heritage brand does not end with the shutdown of the Pottery Village; for workers and the wider Derbyshire community, it leaves a company name preserved even after the local physical presence is reduced.
Craig Thomson on Derbyshire
Craig Thomson, a GMB union organiser, said the closure of the Pottery Village is "a tragedy for Derbyshire". He also said: "Former Denby workers are furious at the lack of transparency from the administrators, with next to no information being shared with the wider community about Denby's new owners or their intentions for the brand."
Thomson added: "At the end of the day, if it's not made in Britain, is it really Denby? The new owner of the Denby brand must ask themselves this question."
FRP has released no further details about the sale, so the immediate facts stop at ownership changing hands and the brand continuing. Denby's international subsidiaries in Korea, the US and China are not in administration and will continue to operate as normal.
