US television coverage drummed up by the Duchess of York has more than justified her UK 500,000-a-year pay, Stoke-on-Trent china company Wedgwood said.
The company“s Irish parent Waterford Wedgwood,…
US television coverage drummed up by the Duchess of York has more than justified her UK 500,000-a-year pay, Stoke-on-Trent china company Wedgwood said. The company“s Irish parent Waterford Wedgwood, which appointed the Duchess as Wedgwood“s US spokesperson in May, said her tours of US department stores demonstrating upmarket china were priceless. “It“s given us fantastic TV coverage which would be priceless if one had to pay for it by normal media advertising,” said finance director Mr Richard Barnes. The Duchess began her tours in September and will continue to travel the states doing in-store promotions throughout the year. But Mr Barnes would not say whether Wedgwood“s sales had actually been boosted in the US since she began work. The Duchess“s appointment – on a two year contract – was controversial since it came shortly after the group laid off another 150 people in Stoke-on-Trent and shut another factory there as global sales slid in the wake of the Asia crisis. A total of 1,400 Wedgwood workers have lost their jobs since 1998. “All I“m prepared to say is that we are quite satisfied with the performance of the ceramics businesses – both Wedgwood and Rosenthal – against a background of very difficult conditions,” said Mr Barnes. “What is significant for us is that it is profitable – not as profitable as we would like but it is substantially more profitable than its competitors.” Mr Barnes did say that sales of Wedgwood and Rosenthal china and Waterford crystal had grown nearly 10% in 1999 to UK 521 million and grown particularly strongly in the US. Much of the growth was driven by sales of crystalware and millennium products, with ceramics attracting less demand. When sales from US luxury kitchenware maker All-Clad, acquired last year, were added overall sales grew 20% to UK 544 million. Mr Barnes said no further large-scale redundancies were planned in Stoke-on-Trent. However he said he could not rule out smaller scale job losses as new machinery is brought in. And there are likely to be further rounds of job cutting at German porcelain subsidiary Rosenthal, where numbers have fallen from 2,200 to 1,700 since it was bought in 1997. “While we will keep the two brands separate, there is room for integrating back office and distribution functions and that will be accelerated,” said Mr Barnes. The group also announced that Greek shipping tycoon Mr Peter John Goulandris, the brother-in-law of the chairman Mr Tony O“Reilly, who owns 6% of Waterford Wedgwood, was being made executive chairman in charge of ceramics.