Robert Cochran & Co.

Robert Cochran & Co., Britannia Pottery, 186, Glebe Street, St. Rollox.—

    The manufacture of pottery is one of the numerous ties that have received creditable development in Glasgow ; and among its best representatives in this city stands the eminent house of Messrs. Robert Cochran & Co., one of the oldest concerns of its kind in the west of Scotland. The origin of this important business dates back as far as the year 1770. Mr. Robert Cochran commenced operations as a pottery manufacturer in Finnieston Street about 1840. In 1854 the Britannia Pottery in Glebe Street, St. Rollox, was started, the partners being Mr. Alexander Cochran and Mr. James Fleming, who continued the business under the style of Robert Cochran & Co.

    The works cover three acres of ground, three sides of which are fronted by a substantial range of three-storey buildings, and in the centre of the property are fifteen large kilns for the purposes of the industry. The manufacturing operations engaged in are of a most extensive and important character. Upwards of four hundred workpeople are employed, and the entire industry progresses with a smoothness and efficacy indicative of admirable organization and management. A speciality is made for the American market, called granite ware, which has achieved great success and popularity upon the merits of its sound quality, durability, and fine finish.

    Messrs. Robert Cochran & Co. have a stand at the Glasgow International Exhibition of present year (1888), where some of the more artistic productions of their manufacture are shown, richly decorated dinner services, &c., as well as some of the common class of ware. The productions of the firm are endless in variety, as required for a wide export trade, American, Colonial, and Eastern markets requiring different shapes and patterns apart from the home trade, which has also its peculiar shapes and patterns.

    The individual members of this firm are gentlemen of prominence in Glaswegian commercial circles, and both as business men and as citizens are possessed of a large measure of the public respect and confidence. Mr. James Fleming, the second partner, was for six years a member of the School Board for Glasgow, and is at the present time chairman of that excellent institution, the School of Art, in which he has always taken a deep and beneficial interest.

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