🔒Edgecomb Potters will shut down production site, keep stores open

Edgecomb Potters, which for more than 50 years has sold handmade mugs and pottery, said this week it will shut down its production site. In a social media post, the second-generation owner said the stores will remain open, but production will close indefinitely. The stores are in Edgecomb, Portland and Portsmouth, N.H. The operation was founded by Chris and Richard Hilton in 1976. Their son Brad now runs the business, and he is the one who posted the news. "What made it possible was not just clay and kilns, but people. From Chris and Richard, to the very first employees like Donna and Gary, to every hand that has worked here since. From our earliest customers in the Red Schoolhouse and Faneuil Hall, to those who return year after year to our Portland and Portsmouth stores. You’ve all been part of this journey, and I am grateful," Brad Hilton posted. "But times change, and this chapter is closing. After 50 years of incredible production, we will be shutting down our Edgecomb studio," he continued. "This wasn’t an easy decision." Richard Hilton died in 2011. Brad Hilton stepped in after his mom became ill in 2019. "When Chris fell ill in 2019, I stepped in full time with the hope of saving it," the son posted. "Maybe it was because it was my last connection to my parents and their life’s work, but I couldn’t walk away. For a time, we made it work. But the continual rise in operating costs — insurance, electricity, processing fees — made it unsustainable to keep producing pottery here." The business hopes to find another production studio at some point, but Brad Hilton said in the post that there are "a lot of steps that have to happen for us to get there."

The stores

Edgecomb Potters' retail store in Portland sells a range of products, not just the company's pottery. For instance, it sells the company's signature "whale's tail" mug, which retails for $64. But it also sells paintings, furnishings, maple syrup and a range of gift products, most of which have a Maine theme and/or are produced in Maine. He said the stores will sell the existing inventory of Edgecomb pottery, but Hilton urged customers who have their eye on something to "snag it soon."