This issue marks my 40th year chronicling the tableware industry, the last 28 as the founder and editor of Tableware Today. Spend four decades in an industry and you see change: sometimes sweeping (lifestyle shifts/consolidations/e-commerce); sometimes specific (Covid/less entertaining at home/rising costs). On the other hand, four decades is just a blip in the life of many tableware producers. Our industry, really, is a contradiction in so many ways: a heritage category that must remain fresh, modern, relevant; an industry that services old-world behavior (dining with friends) to an on-the-go, less communal society; and an industry that makes durable products for a disposable world.
In our ever-increasing expendable times, heritage companies remain of consequence; they establish a sense of authenticity, trust, and craftsmanship with consumers while also creating an emotional connection that new competitors can’t match. And yet our industry is built on new blood and thrives on fresh points-of-view: businesses started by artisans, visionaries, thinkers, who dare step out of a comfort zone to say: I can do that. I need to make that.
Every issue of Tableware Today brings stories on both types of makers: the ones with long and storied histories that have survived world wars, depressions, and generational leadership change to operate in a brave new world; and those newer enterprises that dared to start up during a global pandemic because, well, YOLO. Companies with histories are especially important in a world where change is constant and new businesses are created every year. On the other hand, new companies create jobs and, for the most part, bring a 2024 viewpoint to business by prioritizing fair labor practices, diversity and inclusion, philanthropy, and less stringent workplace demands.
................................ To guard against disruption, longtime companies need to appeal to today’s consumer, while new enterprises must understand the exciting history of our industry. A blend of both businesses is what makes this industry so special and why I haven’t run out of things to write about in 40 years.
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Over four decades, my catbird perch has metaphorically brought me to practically every corner of the globe, profiling businesses large and small, rich and poor. I have seen huge companies (by tabletop standards anyway) become shadows of their former selves, and one-person artisanal crafters become significant industry suppliers. I have interviewed the same folks over decades, witness to their own evolutions in their own operations, and yet every issue brings someone, or some company, I was unaware of: either a new company just emerging or a business finally seeking distribution in the world’s greatest consumer marketplace or a company operating under the radar for years before one thing or another brings them into the current zeitgeist. The one constant I have discovered in all of this is that nothing ever stays the same. Substantial change or slight change, give yourself four decades, and you can see the trajectory of it all. And it’s been extraordinary. Keep changing.