Cover Story Noritake ColorStax Ombre
“Our customers are
more diverse than ever” Jay Fingert, senior vice president, Noritake talks to Tableware International about the brand’s exciting new launches, and how it is navigating the industry today… Jay, thank you for speaking with us. How has business been for Noritake recently? Sales of tableware, like most home goods, had been unbelievably good beginning within weeks of the start of Covid. By late May 2020, online retailers and traditional retailers with developed websites were seeing large year-over-year increases. When physical stores began to reopen, they experienced similar sales increases. The only limitation on sales were supply chain related. Since the start of this year the same economic trends and concerns are affecting us like everyone else. The cumulative effect of supply chain
issues, price increases, and inflation concerns have resulted in slowing sales and a much more conservative approach to purchasing and promotions from key partners.
Noritake is presenting its Charlotta Gold and Trefolio Holiday collections on the front cover of this issue – tell us more about these collections. Holiday dinnerware is a big seller as a gift and for personal use. Many people want to have holiday tableware but don’t want to invest in a complete set. Charlotta Gold, our first
Did you know? Noritake recently introduced two new collections – Colorstax Stripe and Colorstax Ombre. 24 TABLEWARE INTERNATIONAL
introduction with microwave-safe gold, was a huge success from the start. We knew its embossed gold band design lent itself to holiday extensions from the beginning. In 2021 we introduced sets of four mugs and accent plates in tree and harvest designs. This year we are adding sets of four appetizer plates in both designs. Trefolio Gold has a different origin story. Like Charlotta Gold, the pattern was a success from the start. Unlike Charlotta, we weren’t targeting holiday themes when we started working on extensions. We were working on items in additional colours to use as giftware. We quickly saw that red and green looked great and were perfect for Christmas.
Who is a typical Noritake customer in the US? There really isn’t a typical Noritake customer. Our customers are more diverse than ever. For generations
Noritake had built a reputation as a leading bridal registry brand. While we still pride ourselves on being a leader in this category, wedding registry has changed and its share of sales of better tableware have changed with it. Consumers purchasing better tableware for their own use have become a larger and larger share of our business. The share of our business from consumers purchasing better tableware for their own use had been growing for several years to the point it had become larger than wedding registries share. That trend has accelerated with the events of the last two years as people are looking inward to home and family and have developed a greater appreciation for all home goods, including tableware. One thing our customers have in common is a desire for quality. We are seeing strong increases in newer patterns and collections and ones
