Richard Dunne can’t quite believe he’s looking at 30 plus years working in the tableware industry. Time has flown, business has morphed, and the playing field has shifted, but Dunne’s back with longtime colleagues peddling dinnerware. The congenial Dunne is presently heading up the Gourmet by Fitz and Floyd brand, looking to bring the almost 50-year-old gift and decorative accessories resource back into the dinnerware realm. Teaming up with erstwhile boss Safford Sweatt – whom Dunne first worked with more than 25 years ago at Lenox – the dinnerware expertise between the two of them alone could fill the company’s 60,000-square-foot warehouse with saleable designs. Established late last year, Gourmet by Fitz and Floyd is intended to be a one-stop shop for retailers, offering its own version of ‘good, better, best’ targeted to independents, department stores, category killers, and mass merchants. “The market knows and understands Fitz and Floyd is a venerable name that stands for quality and longevity,” affirms Dunne. “We know that dinnerware carrying the Fitz and Floyd backstamp is something the market wants.” And to help get a leg up, Fitz and Floyd formed a strategic alliance with the Australian-based Stoneage Ceramics, a 25-year-old fashion-forward producer with an international following but virtually no recognition here. “We looked at their products and their resources – which includes a great design studio, innovative techniques, a Shanghai office and impressive showroom, and a strong direct business with a few U.S. retailers – and knew the company would be a valuable asset as we grow the Gourmet by Fitz and Floyd brand,” Dunne declares. With Fitz and Floyd’s own foothold in Asia, working with more than a dozen factories, as well as an esteemed 47-year U.S. history, a solid infrastructure was in place to launch the burgeoning brand.

Enter Dunne, the former Lenox marketer and product developer (“Lenox was a fertile training ground and disciplined environment for the best and brightest in our industry”). Holding a rich résumé, Dunne also helped re-establish Wedgwood to the U.S. market after its purchase by Waterford 20 years ago and developed the Marquis brand. That was followed by a five-year stint bursting open Bormioli Rocco’s business – he increased it fortyfold in the early ’90s – followed by a brief foray for Fitz and Floyd in their collectibles division, all making Dunne a rather in-demand find as well as one of the nicest guys this industry offers up. “The opportunity to reconnect with Saff (now vice chairman of Fitz and Floyd),” he says, “and develop dinnerware was very exciting to me.”