A CHINESE porcelain manufacturer has won an order to make the official tableware to be used at the British royal wedding of Prince William and his fiancee Kate Middleton.
Guangxi Sanhuan Group, based in Beiliu, a city in China s southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, known locally for its ceramics and porcelain ware, said they came out tops over more than 500 companies bidding to produce royal wedding porcelain, fighting off stiff competition from manufacturers around the globe.
The company is now taxed with producing some 16,000 porcelain tableware products to be used at the wedding. Company officials said the products were divided into five categories including a dining plate, a coffee cup and saucer set, a commemorative mug and a souvenir plate. They would be either used at the wedding or given to wedding guests as souvenirs.
The design is generally a uniform one featuring a photograph of Prince William and Kate Middleton inside a heart shape with the words William and Catherine written below.
When we won the order, our company bosses were very happy and excited, said Gary Qiu, a marketing manager for the Guangxi Sanhuan Group.
They paid great attention to it. The entire production process including the preparation was worked on a very tight schedule. Also, we used one of the most advanced kilns in China to make these products.
Established in 1987, Guangxi Sanhuan is a modern Chinese success story a once State-owned company that has now gone private, tailoring a reputation of being a quality manufacturer of ceramics and porcelain over the past decade.
It employs more than 8,000 people and is known for producing high-quality table and dining ware for export to Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia. Qiu said a special high-temperature glazing technique was being used to manufacture the wedding porcelain, with the plates and mugs being set at temperatures of more than 1,600 degrees Celsius in the kilns. This would ensure the longevity of the china, a theme the company used in its winning bid for the order.
As long as this plate is not broken or smashed, it will never change, Qiu said. This fits into our theme of everlasting love and thus with this we give our blessings to the prince and his future wife, as well as to the wedding.
Besides this official order, other Chinese manufacturers have already been cashing in on the royal wedding as they churn out tens of thousands of replica royal engagement rings as well as other imitation wedding memoriabilia that are in demand globally ahead of the April 29 wedding.(SD-Agencies)
