Loss-making luxury goods group Waterford Wedgwood Plc said on 16 October 2008 it was further cutting its manufacturing operations in Ireland, adding another 280 job cuts to the 490 losses announced la…
Loss-making luxury goods group Waterford Wedgwood Plc said on 16 October 2008 it was further cutting its manufacturing operations in Ireland, adding another 280 job cuts to the 490 losses announced late 2007. The firm said it regretted the need to end large scale manufacturing at its crystal unit in Waterford but that it would continue to make a prestige crystal range in the city and maintain its tourist trail operations there. In November 2007, the company said it was cutting 490 jobs in Waterford, in south-eastern Ireland, to cut costs. The redundancies announced on 16 October 2008 mean that just 200 workers will remain on site in Waterford. Waterford Wedgwood, which owns china brands such as Wedgwood and Royal Doulton as well as Waterford Crystal, has been struggling for years to reverse a decline in demand for its luxury tableware, once a fixture on wedding gift lists worldwide. “As part of our on-going group-wide review of operations, it has become clear that maintaining manufacturing operations in Ireland at their current level is not feasible”, group chief financial officer Anthony Jones said in a statement. “Along with many other companies, we are, therefore, forced to find alternative means of production abroad”. In May 2008, the Irish government turned down a request from Waterford Wedgwood to underwrite a EUR 39 million (USD 53.28 million) loan aimed at protecting its crystal making business. Chaired by Irish billionaire Anthony O“Reilly, the company closed another plant in Ireland two years ago and has been outsourcing production to countries with lower manufacturing costs including Slovenia, Romania and Brazil.