Shaws of Darwen, the iconic clayware brand best known for its Belfast sinks, is pulling out of the UK market entirely, and will not be accepting new orders from 1st November. Shaws will stop manufacturing products at its UK facility by the end of June 2027.
The news came in a letter sent to customers and signed by Jonathan White, Sales Director EMEAA for Shaws’ parent company, Fortune Brands Innovations, which was seen by kbbreview. The letter makes clear that the decision to stop UK manufacturing will only affect the Shaws brand, and not Fortune Brands’ wider portfolio of KBB brands, such as Perrin & Rowe, Victoria + Albert, and Aqualisa.
Despite pulling out of the UK, Shaws products will continue to be supplied to the North American market, through a sourced product range designed specifically for that market. Shaws says this is because product requirements differ between the two territories, and anticipated sales volumes from the UK and EU segment “would not support the investment and cost required to develop and supply a separate compliant range.”
In a statement, Fortune Brands stated: “We will be restructuring our Shaws sinks business by rationalising the product portfolio, optimising our production footprint and focusing on the North American end market. Shaws is an excellent brand with room to grow and we will continue to invest in and support the brand. Going forward, we believe we will have scalable capacity that can support more innovation, expansion and profitable growth.”
More at: https://www.fbin.com/
Source: https://www.kbbreview.com