British Family Business
Established 1868
British Family Business
Over £2million of Stock
The Strongest Name in Tableware
A Guide to Steelite's Key Features & Benefits
Steelite International's story dates back to 1875 when the inventor of the reinforced edge for crockery, Thomas Wood Bennett, started a factory to manufacture tableware for hotels in Stoke-on-Trent. Over the last 150 years, Steelite has established itself as a leader in manufacturing tableware, particularly for profesisonal use in catering and hospitality settings.
Steelite suppliers businesses all over the world, and it is their commitment to quality, sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and social responsibility that has help to establish them as a trusted manufacturer and earned them the reputation as 'the strongest name in tableware'.
Explore how Steelite's professional tableware could benefit your business...
Steelite for Professionals: Performance & Distinction
Steelite's Distinction and Performance ranges have been specifically designed with professional use in mind. All items in these collections feature a Lifetime Edge Chip Warranty as an assurance of their excellent quality. Additionally, all items in Distinction and Performance ranges feature the following:
- Made with a high alumina content to ensure ultimate strength.
- Durable transparent glaze on white or decorated items provides excellent quality finish and great performance in service.
- Engineered design ensures maximum performance.
- Steelite's ISO registered suppliers ensure consistent material and product quality for manufacturing.
- Each piece inspected, examined, and tested to ensure they can withstand the rigours of modern commericial kitchen and dining environments.
Below are further details on how Performance and Distinction lines from Steelite should be chosen for fast-paced professional catering and hospitality use.
No More Chipped Plates
Chipped plates result in high levels of replenishment orders. Additionally, this problem can increase risk of health and safety issues, leading to potential injury from unsightly plates or chipped pieces of crockery in food, etc.
The usually occurs due to a poorly formulated creamic body that hasn't been engineered or finished to the highest standard.
Steelite's Solution
With a Lifetime Edge Chip Warranty, Steelite has every confidence in the longevity of their products. Thanks to the specially designed ceramic body for their food service industry lines, you can rest assured your crockery will last. All items also go through 53 quality checks to ensure they will excel in service.
Secure Handles
When you're serving a hot cup of tea or coffee, you have to know your cups aren't going to fall apart. Overtime, handles can crack and break off teacups, coffee cups, and mugs. This again results in high replenishment for businesses, unattractive crockery, and safety risks. Often this is caused by more quality ceramics and inefficient manufacturing.
Steelite's Solution
Steelite is an expert in producing crockery for professional use, and with the use of excellent quality materials and smart manufacturing methods, they can engineer the handle to fix securely to the cups they produce.
These cups, mugs, tea and coffee pots are built to last, but also combine timeless designs to enhance presentation for excellent beverage service.
Save Space with Stacking Plates
It's essential to keep your kitchen and back of house areas organised, and when you're working with a smaller space, you need efficient solutions. Crockery that isn't easily stacked or stored can be knocked over and damaged, or caused other hazards if they are obstructing workspaces.
Steelite's Solution
Steelite's Performance and Distinction ranges have a stackable design for the majority of their plates, bowls, and dishes. This helps you organised your workspaces and storage areas with ease, improving the flow of service.
Additionally, thanks to the incredibly strong ceramic bodies these pieces are crafted from, they can hold more weight than other options, so you can stack more pieces on top of each other.
Hot to Cold Without Breaking
Not all crockery can handle quick and extreme temperature changes, which isn't ideal in professional settings. Whether its plates coming out of hot ovens and being placed on cold surfaces or cold water, to being able to withstand the icy temperaturs of a freezer, professionals need crockery that can survive these extremes.
Often items that can't handle this have weaker ceramic bodies and high thermal expansion.
Steelite's Solution
Performance and Distinction ranges have been designed to with a ceramic body that has low thermal expansion and shapes that are tolerant of heat. These items are all safe to place in microwaves, freezers, and have a high thermal shock resistance. They can withstand temperature fluctuations of up to 176°C (350°F).
Keep Hot Food Hot and Cold Food Cold
You want to make sure that food stays hot when it reaches the customer, or that chilled desserts/courses don't warm up. Some ceramics don't offer great heat or chill retention, particularly if the body has been made from subpar materials.
Steelite's Solution
The presence of alumina in Steelite's Performance and Distinction collections give these items the ability to hold correct temperatures for longer, whether you want to serve something hot or cold.
Attractive Tableware for Perfect Presentation
Overtime, dishes and plates can become worn, and some might even become stained from food. This happens when the glaze finish applied wears away, especially if it is weak quality as this results in poor resistance to detergent. Unglazed feet can also cause marking, and general poor strength and thermal shock resistance can also lead to damage and wornout crockery.
Steelite's Solution
You don't want to have to replace your crockery because it has become unsuitable for smart presentation thanks to its poor appearance. Steelite's alumina vitrified bodies can offer the utmost confidence that your plates and dishes will not stain. Additionally, their top-quality glaze formula is thoroughly tested against commercial dishwashing for peace of mind that it won't be damaged by detergents.
Clean Efficiently in Dishwashers
Damaged glaze isn't the only thing you need to worry about when using commercial grade dishwashers. Crockery that isn't designed for professional use, or simply has been manufactured with lower quality materials and design, are at a greater risk of chipping and breaking, especially if they're being washed frequently (as is to be expected in busy environments with high volumes of diners).
Steelite's Solution
Thanks to the specialist glaze formula and the incredibly strength of the alumina vitrified bodies in the Distinction and Performance tableware lines, you can feel at ease putting your crockery into your commercial dishwashers time and time again, only seeing stylish, sparkling plates coming out of the wash.
Best Value for Money
Although there might be cheaper alternatives available on the market, Steelite's products are a smart investment for professional catering and hospitality businesses. These ranges can offer long-term value and provide significant cost savings in the years to come.
Here's a quick breakdown of how Steelite Distinction and Performance products can help save you money:
- Reduced Replacement Costs: Lesser quality products will require replacement much quicker than Steelite items.
- Lower Attrition Rates: Steelite's chinaware boasts an attrition rate of only 10% per year, compared to the industry average of 37%.
- High Return on Investment: While initial costs might be slightly higher, the durability of these products results in long-term savings.
Over 5 years it will become clear why Performance and Distinction tableware from Steelite has the advantage.
- Year 1: Initial investment slightly more than other products in the market, but replacement costs remain minimal.
- Year 2: Lesser quality products can start showing wear, requiring early replacements, increasing costs by approximately 5-10%.
- Year 3: Accumulated replacements could raise costs by 10-20% compared to Steelite's long-lasting products.
- Year 4: Continued breakage and deterioration of lesser-quality products could increase replacement expenses by 25-30% over the original investment.
- Year 5: Over time, the total expenditure on replacing crockery could reach at least 20% more, and in some cases, up to 40% more than Steelite products.
Steelite can offer operators substantial long-term savings compared to competitors, all while maintaining consistent quality and presentation.