Pot Luck Ceramics Port Alberni fundraising Coop members took a trip to Portugal recently, where they visited a factory that produces new terracotta ceramics that will be available for sale in the Gertrude Street shop by the end of June.
Four Pot Luck employees paid their own way to Portugal so they could visit the factory, Pot Luck Ceramics founder Helma Swinkels said.
Although still importing from Spain, Pot Luck Ceramics added Portuguese products because all Southern European terracotta cook and dinnerware is attractive for Canadian customers, Swinkels said.
“It is something which we don’t produce here in Canada, yet it is such beautiful pottery,” she wrote in an email.
The factory in Portugal—called Grandela—has a separate company that produces terracotta clay, which gets shipped all over the world, Swinkels said.
She said Pot Luck Ceramics is the only company in Canada importing these terracotta products, therefore they looked beyond the borders of Spain to Portugal for cook and dinnerware.
“The owners of the factory go out of their way to help us, especially when they realize the profits of our sales go to quality of life services in our community, and especially the end-of-life care facility, Ty Watson House,” she explained.
Four pallets of Grandela ceramic cookware left the European city on May 18 by ship and is slated to arrive in Canada by the end of June.