NEWELL, W.Va. -- Born of the Great Depression, it was a glossy, color-saturated line of cups, bowls and plates meant to affordably brighten lives and dinner tables. Seven decades later, Fiesta dinnerware is still designed to send a subtle message of optimism, but it's no longer quite so cheap.Yet Fiesta's enduring popularity and strong sales, even as consumers cut back, are helping to keep struggling Homer Laughlin China Co. afloat. It's the last major dinnerware producer that makes its products in the United States, as competitors have shut down or moved offshore.
"We're fighting for our lives right now," President Joe Wells III says of the West Virginia company that's battling the ever-rising cost of doing business and the ever-falling prices of foreign competitors. He represents the fourth generation of his family to run the Newell factory that has employed thousands of families in and around West Virginia's Northern Panhandle.
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