Arthur Price
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Arthur Price & Co. is a cutlery company in the UK.
[edit] Arthur Price (1865 - 1936)
Arthur Price, founder of Arthur Price of England, Master Cutlers & Silversmiths, was born on 3rd March 1865. He left school at the age of 14 and worked for various cutlery companies in Birmingham to learn his craft. These were Hands & Company, Potosi Silver Company, and John Yates & Son.
In 1902, Arthur started his first factory making silver cutlery (also known as silverware, or flatware in the USA, knives, spoons and forks on Gem Street, Aston, Birmingham. The Company, then called A. Price & Co. Ltd, were the first to manufacture chromium plate spoons and forks, which was the forerunner of Stainless Steel.
In 1911 he moved the company to a small factory at Conybere Street, where he started to cast his own nickel silver ingots. Arthur Price was a great believer in being fully integrated as a manufacturer. Around the time that world war 1 started, he moved the company again to Vauxhall Street, Birmingham.
The company continued to grow throughout the depression of the 1930s, despite fire breaking out in the Gem Street factory on the 6th November 1934. (read the original news article). Arthur died on 20th February 1936 at the age of 70, leaving the company in the hands of his two sons, Arthur & Frederick. The onset of war in 1939 created a huge drop in demand for cutlery and silverware. And to make matters worse, Arthur Junior died in 1942 at the age of 50 from cancer, leaving Frederick to cope on his own.
Midway through the war, Frederick managed to gain a contract with the Ministry of Aircraft Production manufacturing hot brass pressings, which formed the body of incendiary bombs. This contract saved the company, as not only had demand dropped to an all time low, the Ministry of Labour were threatening to close the factory in order to release what was left of its workforce. The very war which threatened the company offered it a life line. Arthur Price & Co. Ltd continued making munitions for the remainder of the war.
After the 2nd World War ended, cutlery production started again and in the immediate post war years demand outstripped supply. Cutlers could sacrifice quality and sell anything, but Arthur Price & Co were determined to go against this trend and insist on returning to their pre-war standards of only selling the finest quality cutlery.
During the late 1940s, Arthur Price & Co acquired an even larger cutlery factory in Sheffield and in the years that followed the company became the largest manufacturer of Stainless Steel cutlery in the country. By this time, the company was being run by the current Chairman, John Price, son of Frederick.
In 1964, John Price took the adventurous step to rename Arthur Price & Co as Arthur Price of England. He wanted to emphasise the company’s expertise as an English cutlery manufacturer based in Birmingham and Sheffield. In the years that followed, the Arthur Price of England brand grew steadily. A notable achievement was designing and making the cutlery for Concorde in 1976.
Then, in 1977, the company was granted the Royal Warrant by appointment to Her Majesty the Queen in recognition for being a top quality supplier to Her Majesty’s Household.
In 1982, Arthur Price of England ended its long association with Birmingham by relocating to its current head office in Lichfield, Staffordshire. This move saw its entire cutlery manufacturing operations now based in Sheffield.
Arthur Price in recent years
Since its creation in 1902 right up to the mid 1980s, Arthur Price & Co only manufactured classic, English cutlery. This was a very limited product range, but had successfully sustained the company for over 80 years.
However, the market was changing in the 1980s and the company started to add to its product range quite significantly over the next 20 years to what we see today. The company took its first steps to diversify beyond just cutlery with the introduction of classic silver tableware and gifts.
In 1988 the company was granted its second Royal Warrant, this time to His Royal Highness The Prince Of Wales. Also in this year, Arthur Price added to its range of skills by buying Charles Kirkby, a cutlery cabinet manufacturer based in Sheffield.
In 1992, the company introduced its first cutlery range that wasn’t manufactured in the UK. The market had changed quite considerably by now and there was huge growth in the amount of product imported from the Far East. Arthur Price knew it had to respond to this move in the market and its first range produced in the Far East, Arthur Price International, was launched alongside its UK made collections.
In 1993, it bought another cutlery manufacturer in Sheffield, called Deeleys, and gradually over time amalgamated all of its cutlery manufacturing operations into the Deeleys factory.
In 1994 Arthur Price bought its major UK competitor, George Butler, which significantly increased its market share in the UK. As part of this deal, Arthur Price also became the sole distributor in the UK of the leading French cutlery brand, Guy Degrenne.
By 1997, the market was crying out for more contemporary designs with the huge growth of consumers’ interest in home interiors and design. Arthur Price launched its first contemporary cutlery designs in 1997 in response to this market change. This was an important step for the company, and more and more contemporary cutlery designs have been added to the product range in the 10 years since then to sit alongside its renowned classic designs. Today, Arthur Price in fact sell far more contemporary cutlery than it does classic.
The companies move into contemporary design took another leap forward in 2000 when it linked up with interior designer, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. Laurence designed a range of cutlery patterns and they were launched onto the market with great success. They were the original designer cutlery and started a trend of using famous designers in housewares & tabletop that many companies have since followed.
A year later in 2001, Arthur Price linked up with one of the world’s most famous photographers, Lord Patrick Lichfield, to design and launch the Lichfield Photograph Frame Collection. This also continued Arthur Price’s Royal connections, Lord Lichfield being The Queen’s cousin.
Another famous name, Jean-Christophe Novelli has teamed up with Arthur Price to create his own branded range of kitchenware called Novelli by Arthur Price, which features Jean-Christophe's own invention, the 'Versi-Tool'. This is essentially a spatula with a serated edge and a cheese slicer which allows one to cut, slice & turn the food using only one tool. Novelli is the first ever range of kitchen utensils under Jean-Christophe's name.
