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Viners Cutlery

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3 hours ago, Bargepole23 said:

Nobody wants to buy a canteen of cutlery any more, not even for a wedding present. Nobody has for a long time. You can outperform all you like but no sales equals no business. It's a shame those much vaunted cutlery manufacturers management didn't realise that and diversify, or develop other lines, or train fresh blood, or invest, instead of throwing all those workers and skills on the scrap heap.


It's a mistake for anyone to think That the whole world thinks and feels exactly the same as they do.
Presumably, you have done some sort of poll which has informed you that NOBODY wants to buy canteens of cutlery and you also (know?) think that no one has for a long time.

It shouldn't take you long to research that retailers such as Johns Lewis and House of Fraser, are still successfully selling canteens of cutlery, and for quite high prices too.
This doesn't mean that the quality matches that of top British cutlery such as I worked with and to be fair Arthur Price of England say in some of their adverts,
That "some of their products have parts sourced from Asia."   Advert part shown here -

Product code: 73150221     Made in the UK
This classic Grecian cutlery from Arthur Price comes in a timeless design that will complete any dinner service featuring a unique fingerpoint blade that is exclusive to John Lewis.
Offering an outstanding quality in a time honoured style, this ever-popular classic design will cater for all manner of dining occasions.
Dine in luxury with this premium gift boxed, 44-piece cutlery set for six people from Arthur Price. Better still, it is guaranteed for a lifetime and is dishwasher safe too. And the cutlery set is presented in a stylish Arthur Price gift box.

Our Arthur Price products, WHICH HAVE PARTS SOURCED FROM ASIA but finish their production journey in Sheffield, England, are made from the highest grade sovereign stainless steel:  END OF Ad


Many manufacturerss did diversify and I found myself doing work very different to what I did in the 1950's.
Our manufacturers originally, had the world market to themsselves but lost out when companies from the far east (not Germany & America) began importing large quantities of cutlery,
cheaper than we could even buy the blanks. They did this by sweat shop labour where they paid men a fraction of the wage a British worker would get (and that was already low).
Their steel prices were also much lower becasue of their Government's subsidies. Their steel, in the early days was also, besides being cheaper,  much inferior to British steel.
This meant that our manufacturerss were competing with a fair quality product against cheap tack made from cheap inferior steel.
This is how trade works with emerging countries. China used the same model and in some cases, such as steel, it still does.
As the average guy often doesn't know what the difference should be between a quality product and a cheap tack imitation, most of the sales go to them on price alone. 

 

Manufacturers can re-equip as much as they like but, if they are not competing on a level playing field, they will lose trade.

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I worked at Viners in the late sixties, first in spoon and fork and moved to toolroom.

 

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