When I first started work at Susan Rose China, over 6 years ago now, little did I know how the business was going to change and what my role was to be in making it work!
I came to Susan back in the Summer of 2012 as an administrator with no experience of the English bone china industry (although lots of experience in Sales and Marketing!), employed to work 16 hours per week to run her office which at that time was in one of the bedrooms in her house! Now I work out of a purpose built office and run the Corporate sales side of the business and have a full-time role and say in how the business should grow and operate – my thanks to Susan for this opportunity and for allowing me to put my stamp on this great British business and to see all our efforts rewarded in its growth.
It was really the advent of Susan’s new design back in 2012 – A Mug full of History – which marked the turning point of the business and led us to focus more on the corporate side of the business and thus the growth of Susan Rose China really began!
One of the key elements in making this corporate side work is getting to know the clients – from individuals looking for one-off pieces to commemorate important occasions such as retirements and special events to large organisations looking for something to mark a one-off occasion or one that might be going on for several years. An example of the latter is working with The Royal British Legion using Susan’s “Mug full of History” design to commemorate the events of WW1and the 100 years of the formation of The Royal Air Force; this has afforded us both the opportunity to get to know this organisation well over the last 5 years and to understand their work so much better enabling us to produce different pieces for different occasions.
Whilst this was our starting point, we now make individual gifts for many clients from Racing Trophies and prizes all over the world. You just never know where the next order is coming from! For example, we produced a set of coffee cans for an existing personal client to take with them as a gift for a friend in the USA. These were subsequently shown to the committee of the Grand National Steeplechase Association in Butler Maryland who had been looking for a replacement English bone china prize for the winner of this prestigious race and this individual personalised partnership was born. We are now on our 7th trophy for the winner of this year’s race having now caught up with the ones that were missing as they couldn’t find a supplier!
You just never know how you are going to get noticed! Earlier this year we were approached by the Race Committee of the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club to produce English bone china for the prizes to mark the running of the 70thanniversary of the race from Brisbane to Gladstone in Australia as they were looking for something different and had just found us on the internet – so no personalised introduction here! They were delighted with the resulting range of china that we were able to produce and even more impressed by the fact that it all arrived in tact and in good time for the race even though it was coming from the other side of the world!
Another key factor in getting this corporate work repeated is that we offer a fully personalised service working with just one or two people in the team with pre-production artwork sent for sign-off by committees and/or individuals. We can work from artwork produced by the client such as for The Royal Yacht Squadron for their bi-centenary celebrations and beyond to production of individual drawings by Susan such as the stand at Bath Racecourse and the silhouettes of the horses for the reverse of their prize of a Large Loving Cup and of course using the “Mug full of History” design to celebrate “Winners” such as our 1 pint tankard mugs and plates used at Warwick Racecourse.
We are very passionate about supporting local businesses and were delighted to be approached by the Northamptonshire Food & Drink Awards last year to take our design and create a one-off gift for the winners of their different categories.
One of our specialities and something that we have recently come to is working with our military where we produce individual dinner services for their respective regimental Mess. Here we focus on the fact that all our china is produced completely in the U.K. from the raw material to manufacture – each piece, as with our individual personalised work to individual clients, being hand-made and decorated in Stoke-on-Trent thus supporting another great British institution.
I hope the above has given you a flavour of what we are currently creating corporately in Susan Rose China and has shown you how our skills are used not only to produce those individual orders but also those for our great institutions that go to make Britain great! Our clients enjoy our corporate gifts as they are unmatched for their artistry and quality, fashioned from the highest quality English bone china, finished with meticulous attention to detail and shipped all over the world!
