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Introduced a couple of years back, The ART GLAZE collection of bone china dinnerware still remains one of our favorites – and in the very top tier of the many recent dinnerware introductions in terms of design, grace, and style – and, of course – quality. If you are looking to impress your dining guests, it would be hard to imagine a better dinnerware collection to do it with than Royal Crown Derby’s ART GLAZE. Royal Crown Derby’s ART GLAZE combines the hand-crafted, artisan aesthetic with the purity and whiteness of fine bone china. With the individual application of the reactive glaze, each piece obtains exceptional beauty through random and chance effects during kiln firing and glaze chemistry. The four colored glazes in smoke, sky, caramel and mulberry, have been developed to be stunning on their own, or in combination with one another. Delivering a refreshing, high-end presentation, this bone china provides the perfect presentation piece for any chef-driven menu.
In fact, the entire collection of Royal Crown Derby dinnerware is a range of delicate shapes in fine bone china, made in the heart of England. All of the company’s tableware has elegance fused with practical appeal, making it a great choice for fine dining operators of all types. From pure white bone china to artisan aesthetic reactive glazes, Royal Crown Derby delivers a refreshing high-end presentation and provides chefs with a beautiful canvas for their foodservice presentation. Both of the company’s artisan collections – ART GLAZE and its relaxed cousin collection, STUDIO GLAZE – offer the dining guest a tactile and sensuous experience that embodies the beauty of reactive glazes and sensational textures. You can see all the gorgeous dinnerware collections available from Royal Crown Derby by visiting their website: https://www.royalcrownderby.co.uk/ Or, you can visit their hospitality partner Steelite International here: www.steelite.com British fine bone china manufacturer, Royal Crown Derby, has extended its reach into the hospitality market with an exciting new partnership with iconic British tearoom and craft bakery, Bettys, (https://www.bettys.co.uk/) based in Yorkshire, England. The Derby, England-based company, which offers a personal bespoke service to high-end brand hotel and food service establishments, has supplied the world-renowned purveyor of afternoon tea with an exclusive tableware collection for its new reservation-only ‘Lady Betty Afternoon Tea’.
Christopher Oakes, Sales & Marketing Director of Royal Crown Derby commented: “With our shared British heritage, focus on artisanship and mission to deliver the experience of luxury and indulgence to our customers, there is a clear synergy between our two, established brands. Bettys is known and loved the world over and we are honoured to have been selected to provide the fine bone china collection for its exquisite ‘Lady Betty Afternoon Tea’. We worked closely with the team at Bettys throughout our bespoke programme, from design consultation and pattern development, to durability testing in our in-house laboratory. We are extremely proud of this new union between two established British heritage brands, whose foundations are rooted in skilled craftsmanship and look forward to developing this blossoming relationship.” The 3,300 piece order was produced at Royal Crown Derby's Osmaston Road factory in Derby, using techniques largely unchanged for centuries ensuring the very highest quality materials. Paula Kaye, Bettys Retail and Catering Operations Director, said: “When we were looking for a British manufacturer to produce a bespoke set of fine bone china for our new Lady Betty Afternoon Tea, one name stood out: Royal Crown Derby. Like Bettys, Royal Crown Derby have a long tradition of the finest craftsmanship and attention to detail in creating things of real beauty.” Kaye continued, “The stunning new design, commissioned especially for the Lady Bettys Afternoon Tea, was created by Bettys Creative Manager, Georgina O'Conner, and Royal Crown Derby Creative Director, Andrew Klimecki, inspired by archives from 1919, the year Bettys opened its first Cafe Tea Rooms.” So, if you are considering upgrading your afternoon tea service, Royal Crown Derby has a variety of creative solutions and the heritage of quality and design to help you achieve the proper tea experience for your guests. To learn more about Royal Crown Derby and its fine bone china service for restaurants and hotels, go here: Royal Crown Derby Creates A Better Afternoon Tea Service for Famed Bettys Steelite International and its hospitality tabletop products have a well-deserved reputation for leadership when it comes to innovation, design, practicality and overall tabletop sexiness. But what might be sometimes missed is the strength of the Steelite sales organization and just how the company maintains that organizational strength. And, like the investment it makes in new products, Steelite also invests heavily in its organization as evidenced at Steelite USA’s recently completed sales conference in Chicago. While rich with new products and information on those products, the primary focus of the two day event was on education and information on trends within the hospitality dining segment. With a theme of “Race to The Summit” the conference was kicked off with an inspirational presentation by famed British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes who stressed the critical importance on being the first to attempt - and achieve - big goals….along with the leadership role and responsibility that comes along with being first. Fiennes provided big inspiration to start the sales conference as a man who, in May 2009, at the age of 65, climbed to the summit of Mount Everest (oldest from Great Britain to do this) and was named by Guinness Book of World Records as the world's greatest living explorer. Fiennes is also the first person to climb Mt. Everest and cross both polar ice caps. The education on trends within the hospitality began early the next day, kicked off by Melissa Abbott of The Hartman Group who spoke among many trends, including transitioning to “an eating culture vs. a cooking culture” led by social media. Andrew Klimecki, Head of Design at Steelite/Royal Crown Derby continued on with why forming an emotional connection with restaurant guests is so critical to the success of Steelite’s products. From there, the baton was passed to food and beverage expert Patrick McDonnell, from McDonnell Kinder & Associates in Kansas City. McDonnell and his firm help develop growth strategies for large chains and other select clients in the foodservice and retail industries. McDonnell illuminated on the major influencers that guide today’s multi-unit operators and what drives menu development for many large chains. Echoing many of many of these same sentiments from the operator side was the next speaker, Jason Lapin from Blau and Associates. From scalable restaurant concepts to food & beverage renovation at hotel chains, Las Vegas based Blau and Associates is at the forefront of many new emerging F&B trends. Presentations by experts from leading market research firm Technomic and mixologist Freddie Sarkis closed out the day and provided great information on both macro menu trends and where beverage service in restaurants might be heading. We can’t think of many companies (tabletop or otherwise) who are willing to invest in their people is such a way. Steelite’s belief in educating their entire organization and arming their sales team with the latest in trends information is impressive. A better understanding of their customer’s needs and directionally where those customers are heading means that Steelite can develop relevant products and their frontline account managers can provide better tabletop solutions to those customers.
Leaders are expected to do just that…lead. A better informed, better educated team no doubt helps Steelite lead by bringing more value to hospitality operators by providing tabletop products to help those operators differentiate their individual guest food & beverage experience. In an industry with plenty of great products, it’s refreshing to see a company continue to invest to insure its team stays educated, finely tuned, and relevant to its customer’s needs. Nice job, Steelite. Well done.
During the just completed IHMRS Show in New York, TabletopJournal was pleased to host a variety of educational presentations titled "The Beverage Experience". These sessions, all staged in the very beautiful Bella Bar from Cafe Bellas, featured experts in the areas of a variety of beverages, all with the purpose of showcasing how to: 1) elevate the guest experience with respect to that particular beverage; and 2) provide information to restaurant operators on how to increase their profitability when serving those beverages. Sponsored by Steelite and their Royal Crown Derby brand, our sessions on teas were presented by Jason Walker from Kronen Tea, who provided great information on how to create a better tea experience in a variety of ways during each of his three days of presenting. The above video is footage from Part 1 from Jason. If you are a hotel or restaurant operator who is looking to provide a better tea experience to your guests and make more profit when you do it, you are definitely going to want to hear what Jason has to say. For more information on Kronen Tea, go here: http://kronentea.com/ Royal Crown Derby from Steelite is a range of delicate shapes made in the heart of England of refreshingly pure white fine bone china for the discriminating hotel or restaurant. All of the tableware from Royal Crown Derby has elegance combined with practical appeal – as the company says “breakfast with Royal Crown Derby is simply perfect”. Royal Crown Derby’s legacy of history is an assurance of quality, cascading through successive generations and is dictated by tradition and shaped by time.
Since being acquired by Steelite in late 2012, Royal Crown Derby has added a number of newer, contemporary designs and has refreshed some of the company’s more traditional designs.
So, whether you're looking for gilded, design-forward contemporary designs like Equus (above left) or more traditional, classic designs like Dusky Pink and Lilacs (above right), you can be assured that Royal Crown Derby has both the quality of design - and the quality of product - to fit your discriminating taste. To learn more about Royal Crown Derby and how it can help you elevate the dining experience for your guests, go here: http://us.steelite.com/brands/royal-crown-derby.html If a person is lucky, somewhere in their professional career there is that “special”, perhaps even “magical”, time when you are in the exactly right spot at exactly the right time. For the people of Steelite International, this is that time. The employees of this company find themselves the envy of an industry and the leader in terms of new products and creativity for today's hospitality tabletop. This past weekend, TabletopJournal was fortunate to be a guest at the Steelite International 2014 Annual Sales Conference "Tomorrow's Trends, Today". With an opportunity to see this hospitality leader up close, we were curious to see how Steelite might be planning to continue the industry - leading growth pattern they have been on for the past several years. In a nutshell, it was a totally fascinating weekend and we extend a very sincere thank-you to Steelite for inviting and allowing us to be a guest. The Steelite esprit de corps among the organization is great to see in a time when much of what you read or hear within the hospitality tabletop industry is less than optimistic. And, it's clear that the passion for success evoked by Steelite International CEO Kevin Oakes and echoed by John Miles, Steelite Americas, President and Neil Hooper, Managing Director for Europe and Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific is running through the veins of every frontline Steelite salesperson, employee, and brand ambassador.
Here, are just a few of the many new Steelite products showcased at this event. The company's Royal Crown Derby Entertains division continues to get its feet on the ground and gain traction as a premier upper-end Fine Bone China product designed for the hospitality trade. Royal Crown Derby Entertains is the latest development in the 250+ success story of this company acquired by Steelite in late 2012. This new division represents a vision to create tableware as a luxury statement for use in fine restaurants, hotels, and clubs.
Steelite has been partnering with creative, like-minded partners such as glassware producers Rona and Bormioli Rocco for some time now, placing their products in hospitality customers at all levels. Both companies showcased new products to help fuel the Steelite growth engine of the future. Rona's new Single Malt Whisky glass is the perfect vessel for operators to take advantage of the continued appreciation for high-end whiskys of all types. TabletopJournal has been saying that all whiskys of a special character should be served in a special way....and, now Steelite brings you Rona's glass that especially designed to bring out the all the nuances of the top-level whiskys you are serving your guests. With a rounded belly of appropriate size and a tapered top and sheer rim, this specialty beverage glass will truly allow your whisky to develop to its peak, concentrate its bouquet to a rich and complex finish....providing guests with the perfect, enhanced and elevated beverage experience.
These are just a few of the multitude of new ideas and products that Steelite showcased over the weekend in their pursuit of being a dominant source for creative hospitality tabletop products. Products that not only do their job or function....but products that truly change the dining experience. It would have been difficult for this publication to accurately present all the new products and categories presented during this weekend. We're sure that operators will see the plethora of new ranges, new categories, new materials, and new ideas at Chicago's NRA Show in May and later in the year at the IHMRS Show in New York. The new product parade at Steelite shows no signs of slowing down....in fact, it's just the opposite. Oh...and, did we mention that a new Steelite website, along with a new array of supporting collateral materials and catalogs are all on the way? Expect these before the mid-year. And, as we have written before, with such an extensive array of tabletop products, it requires a skilled and professional organization. And there lies what we consider to be perhaps Steelite's most impressive asset - it's people. From manufacturing and warehousing...to sales and marketing..to finance, logistics, and customer service, the highly-engaged and customer focused infrastructure to support the strong demands of an increasingly global hospitality industry seem firmly in place at Steelite International. Today, when hospitality customers choose their tabletop products, they quickly realize they are also choosing more than simply a product. Choosing Steelite as your tabletop company seems like a great decision. Yes...it's a special time at Steelite, with perhaps the best yet to come. Stay tuned. Steelite International has unveiled a new structure which it hopes will aid its expansion plans. A series of promotions at both Steelite and recent acquisition Royal Crown Derby will help deliver growth across the group, it suggests. Neil Hooper has been appointed as Managing Director for Steelite International Europe and Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and he will head up a newly-formed Operations Team for those regions. The team will be overseen by the Group Operating Board, and Phil Ray takes a seat on the Board in his new position as Company Secretary, with Wendy Dean as Group Human Resources Director. Kevin Oakes, Chief Executive of Steelite International, said: “We’ve enjoyed really strong growth, but we have no intention of resting on our laurels. “We are committed to manufacturing in Stoke-on-Trent, and sales growth allows us to invest in the site here and to develop products that help us compete around the world. The new Operations Team will help us do just that. They all have specialist skills, but they are also very commercially aware and share my passion and vision for this business. It’s a real pleasure to be able to bring on the next generation of exceptional managers and to reward people who have made an outstanding contribution to Steelite International.” Steelite bought Royal Crown Derby last year. Production of the world-famous china and giftware, which dates back to 1750, will remain in Derby – retaining the skills of its 200-strong workforce and paving the way for growth beyond the current annual turnover of about £7 million. A new structure will also act as a springboard for increased sales at Royal Crown Derby. Mr Oakes said: “Royal Crown Derby is famous the world over and we’re proud to be the new custodians of the brand. We want to protect and enhance the name whilst also reinvigorating it and introducing it to the hospitality market. The new structure is streamlined and very commercially-focused, which will pave the way for significant growth.” A question we’re often asked at TabletopJournal is what makes Steelite so special and how do they continue to grow their business? After spending much of today in product review sessions where new product after new product was showcased, along with new uses and updates for existing products….you might well assume that the answers to be those questions would be product related.
However, from what I have witnessed in my very short visit at this sales conference, it’s far more about the people – and their passion – than it is about the individual product that leads to the success at Steelite. While their products are the most creative products of their types, in the end what is impressive is how the Steelite people use these products to provide solutions to their customer’s tabletop problems. From VP, National Accounts Tony Taneal to Denver area Sales Rep Ron Gallman to Tabletop Specialist Mary Beth Miller to Midwest Sales Manager Jack Eaton…. they all shared the passion for selling tabletop with each individual encounter we had with them, as did many others whose names I didn't get. It is this passion for providing tabletop solutions that seems to run throughout the Steelite organization. Today’s product breakout sessions were a good example. Each upbeat and fast moving session was run by a knowledgeable expert whose passion and energy was on full display. You saw it in the informal hallway gatherings - discussing this product or that...how they might work to solve a particular customer's problem. Other companies may try to compete on a product basis, but Steelite seems to be competing on a talent basis….and their inventory of talent runs deep. So, while there can be no doubt that Steelite has some truly creative products – with many more on the way - it is the people and their talent – and, yes, their passion - that are perhaps this company’s most impressive assets.
STORY UPDATE:
The Sentinel newspaper reports that with the acquisition of Royal Crown Derby announced, Steelite has pledged to retain the 200-person workforce of Royal Crown Derby and production will remain in the city , continuing a tradition that dates back to 1750. It is the impending retirement of chief executive Hugh Gibson that prompted the sale of the business to Steelite International. Steelite, which manufactures and sells tableware to hotels and restaurants, has a turnover of £66m, around nine times that of Royal Crown Derby. There are historic links between the two businesses, both having formerly been part of the Royal Doulton Group. Royal Crown Derby left the group in 2000, having been subject to a buyout led by Mr Gibson. Mr Gibson said: "After careful consideration I have decided it is time for me to retire, and know I am leaving Royal Crown Derby in the very safest hands. It has been a privilege to be the custodian of Royal Crown Derby for so many years and I am certain it will thrive and maintain its special place in the heart of the nation under Steelite International's stewardship." |
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Ment'or Inspiring Culinary Excellence Archives
November 2021
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