Bristol Blue Glass (South West) Limited is preparing to produce its first glassware at its new base in Fishponds, Bristol after its predecessor, Bristol Blue Glassworks Limited, was forced into volunt…
Bristol Blue Glass (South West) Limited is preparing to produce its first glassware at its new base in Fishponds, Bristol after its predecessor, Bristol Blue Glassworks Limited, was forced into voluntary liquidation with a GBP 26,000 unpaid tax bill. Master glassmaker Steve Baker says his business has come through a difficult period but is now looking to the future with fresh optimism. Bristol Blue Glassworks, was forced to call in liquidators in September 2007 after receiving a huge tax demand. Mr. Baker said the company had accounting problems and faced a tax commission appeal hearing, which it lost. He said: “We had a tax bill of GBP 26,000 which we couldn“t pay and the interest was growing every day”. “Our only option was to call in our own liquidators and we thought that was the end of that and there was nothing we could do”. “Probably the most upsetting part of it was all the customers we had on the phone and on email worrying about what had happened, even from our clients in America”. “We had to take a long look at the situation and saw a good future for our products, so Angela Payne (managing director of the new company) bought all our assets back such as the kiln, the blowing irons, the stock and the furnace”. The company was set to start making its range of handmade blue glass in the first week of December 2007 at its new factory and retail outlet on Fishponds Trading Estate. Bristol Blue Glassworks Limited was set up in 1995, seven years after the formation of a separate company called Bristol Blue Glass Limited, based in Brislington. Blue glass gets its distinctive colour from the addition of cobalt.
