How three small UK craft companies are conquering the US market

Manhattan is a long way from the pottery kilns of Stoke-on-Trent, but the high-end China cups and saucers made by Richard Brendon look at home in New York’s famous Saks Fifth Avenue department store.
The United States is now the eponymous tableware brand’s fastest-growing and largest retail market, with the entrepreneur, who received the 2024 King’s Award for Enterprise, broadly unfazed by the rumblings of a recession amid America’s slowing economy, with soaring unemployment and interest rates.
“In the UK we’re at the top end of the luxury market,” Brendon said of a range that also includes crystal glassware that is stocked in Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, and Liberty London. “In the US there’s more independent tableware retailers with a much higher average customer spend, so we have more options. It may not be the time for investment, but it still feels like the US is open for business, with the customer willing to pay.”
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On course to bring in revenue of £2.5 million this year, the London-based business emerged from an idea to breathe new life into antique saucers missing their original cup. As part of his product design course at Kingston University, Brendon created a mirrored cup that reflected the pattern of any saucer underneath, a product that remains a staple of his ceramic range, handcrafted by potters in Stoke.
Approaches from several American buyers while exhibiting at Maison&Objet, a Paris trade fair, alerted him to the potential transatlantic market bolstered by a fast-growing, lucrative interior designer client base. “These are significant orders because of the wealth of the client base they’re supplying, but also because the size of the houses are so much bigger generally.”
However, while high-net-worth customers may be cushioned from belt-tightening, the ripple effects of economic uncertainty on consumer spending have squeezed his “aspirational customer”. As such, he believes that now is the time for the UK government to step up targeted trade support for British exporters if opportunities in the United States are to be fully exploited in a challenging climate.
“In my experience, the support provided has been a bit generalist and limited and that will remain so unless these trade departments grow. I’d like to see more being done by British consulates in the US, such as organising more sector-specific trade missions and events and inviting the right buyers down.”
Recent developments do not bode well. In July, just before the general election, the Conservative government axed 18 out of 139 British consulate roles in the US that support businesses and promote UK-US trade and investment. The Department of Trade suggested that the changes would not affect the “high-quality service” offered, pointing out that “seven new targeted positions” had been created.
Some remain unconvinced. “It’s a sad state of affairs. The US is a vast and difficult market, so you need people on the ground to make introductions,” Katie Goldblatt, the director of Rapport London, said. The timepiece accessories business has its products on sale in Saks, Bloomingdale’s and Bergdorf Goodman. “It’s getting rid of trade and local knowledge, which is core to the UK/US trading relationships, which as a small brand we relied on so much at the start.”
Accounting for 70 per cent of Goldblatt’s annual turnover and with an average customer spend of $600, or about £457, compared with £300 in Britain, she said the American market had always been receptive to the heritage of a fourth-generation, family-run brand, established in 1898. Originally a clockmaker, the business has evolved to focus on selling watch-winders and storage and travel accessories to a clientele that typically collects and invests in luxury watches.
What Goldblatt admits is a niche, ancillary offering has found itself well aligned to exploit the rise in buying luxury watches as an investment, along with large-scale online purchases via high-end retail sites such as Mr Porter and Farfetch, accounting for about 60 per cent of revenue and “reaching a very different customer to the one shopping in Harrods”.
While seeing more caution from American retailers around order volumes, she remains committed to a “territory that has welcomed us with open arms” having recently bolstered the sales teams on the ground as well as investing in local marketing and PR support.
“I’m a big believer in the US,” she said. “The looming election is bringing uncertainty for people, but it’s such a big country that whatever happens, the good and bad balance each other out.” Nevertheless, with tariff increases including 10 per cent on all imports and 60 per cent on Chinese goods expected if Donald Trump becomes president, those exporting to the US could face squeezed margins.
The supply chain barometer report for 2024 by Proxima, the global procurement and supply chain consultancy, highlights an increase in international companies with strong US ties gearing up for potential disruption. As well as a shift towards “right-shoring”, or relocating supply chains to reduce cost and mitigate risk, more than 85 per cent of chief executives are now focused on supply chain resilience.
“This uncertainty is unsettling,” Ryan Palmer, of the London Sock Company, said of his premium label’s fastest-growing market. “It’s making us focus on optimising our shipping options to strengthen relationships with carriers to achieve better pricing, but in a way which doesn’t negatively impact the quality or ethics throughout our supply chain.”
Set up 2014,Palmer and David Pickard, his co-founder, quit their corporate roles to focus on a category they saw as fragmented and under-explored, shifting perceptions from a “by the till, afterthought purchase” to a premium proposition. Made from durable Scottish lisle cottonwith boxes of 15 pairs selling for about £200, the approach, said Palmer, had chimed with a broader growth in menswear, evidenced by a forecast £10 million turnover in the next two years.
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While the range is sold at Saks department store, the business is predominantly online, catering for professionals aged 18 to 60 or more focused on sartorial detail. “They’re people into their products. They’ll want a jacket because it’s a particular jacket and ecommerce has made that approach [to buying] much easier.” Furthermore, it has led to the high-profile endorsement he credits with stateside traction.
“We approached some influential Hollywood stylists and dressers of the stars via our social media pages and now it feels like half of Hollywood are wearing our socks.” Indeed, the product is favoured by Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson, the actors.
“It’s hard to measure the direct impact on sales, but brand validation is significant and, since socks are an accessible luxury, I don’t think we’ve been impacted as much as we could have been by the downturn. It feels like we’re in the right place at the right moment.”