The first piece to leave the factory The Charterhouse of Seville It was a palanganero (a set of jug and basin for cleaning) that already sported the characteristic design that would become the watchword of the brand in Spain. That was 184 years ago, which is the age of one of the most emblematic companies and most emotionally linked to the city since the Marquis of Pickman will install in the old one Monastery of Santa María de Las Cuevas a workshop for the manufacture of English earthenware tableware.
From then until today, the company, always very pampered by the public powers, has gone through all kinds of vicissitudes and has been on the verge of being liquidated at various times in its history. It became one of the companies Feeling (the businessman’s group José María Ruiz Mateos) expropriated by the Government of Felipe González and received aid from the Board’s program that gave rise to the macro-cause of the ERE. Today it is, once again, in bankruptcy proceedings and in liquidation proceedings and its current owners, the Zapata familythrough the company Ultralta SLthey are looking for an investor to take charge of the production unit to avoid a definitive dissolution. If the disappearance is completed, the Cartuja tableware that many families have in their homes will become collector’s items.
“Both the La Cartuja Pickman brand and the know-how of thirty workers who are still linked to the factory still have enormous potential,” he defends. Jose Hurtadowho worked as a baker in La Cartuja since 1986, is currently on leave and serves as secretary of the CCOO Industry Federation in Andalusia. The tooling (making of molds), the assembly of the handles and the final review of each piece are done manually and turn each item into a work of craftsmanship. Otherwise, the raw material is a formula based on quartz, kaolin, feldspar, silica, clay and sand, which give the earthenware a characteristic shine. “It has nothing to do with other porcelains,” explains Hurtado.
There are already three businessmen who would have been interested in taking over the production unit and rescuing the firm. But it is difficult for workers to see the future with any optimism, because there have already been several failed attempts in the past. None knew how to provide the impetus needed to renew designs, modernize machinery and update business strategies. With several reference clients such as El Corte Inglés, Heineken or Tabacalera, The company has survived the last decades by the force of an inertia that, however, has proven insufficient to clear its future.
“There has not been a strong commercial commitment,” laments José Hurtado, who believes that the last straw has been given to the company by an untimely and unjustified claim that Social Security Treasury he made to the current owners for non-payments, worth 6 million euros, from his predecessors at the head of the company. Justice ended up ruling in favor of the Zapata family, which won the lawsuit, but by then, the company, which had continued with production “at its own pace, without the possibility of refinancing,” had already incurred new debts with Social Security and the Tax Agency, which has once again led it to liquidation. The company is even considering claiming damages from the Social Security Treasury because it considers it the cause of its economic asphyxiation and claims nearly 2 million euros. “On July 23 we had passed the bankruptcy proceedings but, at the beginning of September, there was a new seizure of the accounts“, details José Hurtado.
Workers from La Cartuja de Sevilla, concentrated at the doors of the factory.
Originally, the Marquess of Pickam was brought from England to 56 master potters “But he quickly discovered that the local artisans learned quickly, so that in a few years the entire working population was native, the management was not.” “The workers were given a liter of milk a day (it was thought that milk was used to cleanse the body). For this purpose, dairy farms were installed inside the factory premises that were run by the factory’s employees. In addition, they had women who cared for the workers’ small children, functioning as the first daycare center in Seville inside a factory. The hot air circulating from the chimneys was transferred to the ceramic dryers and was also used to heat the workshops. cold. Many of the workers They lived on the factory grounds“says José Hurtado in a research carried out on the history of the emblematic company and which served as his final degree project for his studies in Labor Relations and Human Resources.
In 1871, La Cartuja de Sevilla became a supplier to the Royal House of Spain. King Amadeus I of Savoy also later granted the title of Marquis of Pickman to the founder of the brand, “for his outstanding contribution to industrial procedures.” In addition to the Spanish Royal House, La Cartuja has been present in other European royal houses.
Become a seal of distinction, La Cartuja tableware has been part of the trousseau of many families for decades and has shined as a gift on wedding lists. If the closure is completed, the English china pieces from La Cartuja will also be a nostalgic vestige of the disappeared industrial heritage of Seville.