Interest expressed in collapsed pottery firm

"Various interested parties" have come forward after a pottery firm collapsed last month, its liquidator has said.

Moorcroft Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent ceased trading on 30 April and announced it was entering liquidation, with its 57 employees all made redundant.

Moore Recovery was appointed by the firm to handle the process and director Laura Pickering said Moorcroft would officially enter liquidation on 27 May.

She told BBC Radio Stoke an agent had put the company's assets up for sale, which included its name, online presence, factory and remaining retail stock.

"We're in touch with various interested parties who have come forward since the sad news reached the press and the local community," she said.

"We've got various people who are interested in potentially looking to take Moorcroft forward but at the moment, we don't have any deal agreed - we can't agree a deal until the company is in liquidation."

Despite the expressions of interest, Ms Pickering said nobody has committed to purchasing the business as a whole.

She said the pottery sector was a "difficult industry" at the moment and getting someone to take on a sizeable firm was a "difficult sell".

Moorcroft, which had been trading for more than 100 years, was the third ceramics company to collapse since the start of the year, following Royal Stafford and Heraldic Pottery.

It sparked further concerns about the future of the industry in the face of rising energy prices and falling sales.

MPs, unions and workers have been calling on the government to support the sector, with meetings held with ministers.

David Williams, Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, recently called on the government to "act now" to save the industry.

"What we can't have is any more of our pot banks going, it's part of what makes us a city. It's in our DNA," he said.

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