Around 2,700 jobs were under threat at historic Midland crystal and china maker Waterford Wedgwood today after the ailing firm joined a growing roll-call of corporate failures.
The group, known for Wedgwood pottery, Royal Doulton and Waterford crystal, has appointed receivers to parts of its Irish business and expects to appoint Deloitte as administrators at its UK arm.
Waterford, which has a manufacturing base employing 600 in Barlaston, near Stafford, collapsed after talks over a possible sale to a US private equity firm failed to bear fruit and lenders’ patience ran out.
The company will continue to trade as a going concern and chief executive David Sculley is “optimistic” a buyer can be found but question marks now hang over the future of UK and Irish staff.
The UK business employs around 1,900 staff.
Today’s announcement also throws into doubt the future of the factory shop based at the Red House Museum on the site of the former Stuart Crystal glassworks in High Street, Wordsley.
The Irish arm has around 800 staff based in Waterford.
Non-executive chairman Sir Anthony O’Reilly added: “We are consoled only by the fact that everything that could have been done, by management and by the board, to preserve the group, was done.”
The collapse comes despite attempts to revive the struggling business since 2005 by majority owners Sir Anthony and Peter John Goulandris.
The firm was hit by the onset of the financial crisis in the autumn, with sales in October 19 per cent.
8 Comments
Roll on the collapse of failed business models.
Let’s hope that out of the ashes can come smaller, leaner, robust enterprises that are based around creativity and innovation rather than the same old model of profit, hierarchies, authority, top-down leadership, convention and cheap oil.
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Robert.
Typical childish communist attitude enjoying the misery of others.
The biggest failed business model of the last century was the collapse of the Soviet Union. Maybe that is what you want. Or is it you just want us all to hug trees and make “peace man”.
Please explain how your small “creative” and “innovative” enterprises are going to survive without profits ? Or is the government just supposed to give them handouts ?
ET
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Communism is the exploitation of Man by Man.
Capitalism is the contrary.
Neither seem to work.What next?
Re above : yet another nail in Stourbridge’s coffin.
Re creative and innovative: how come China and the Far East have been rather better at it the last twenty years. Brains? Education? Well what is it? It’s not just cheap (or once cheap) labour.Just look at telephones and all the electronic goods…..
Is Stourbridge’s only answer spending what money that is left on binge drinking?
And the old reminder that recessions usually finished in wars which used up labour and created arms factories.
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To be honest will these job losses be a big headache.
They only make novelty goods which don’t add anything to society.
I’ll start worrying myself when the vital service industry and government jobs start going.
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Robert,when did you last employ a workforce?,when did you last have to put up your house as security to the banks in order to get funding for expansion? Have you ever managed a business?
Some 87% of business in the UK employ less than 12 staff and contribute to both the local economy and UK taxes. These are hard times and for every Waterford/Wedgewood/Royal Doulton that is going out of business,100’s of smaller businesses are failing.
Join the real world of harsh economics Robert!I trust you feel your financial future is secure, who is or will pay for it? The tooth fairy perhaps?
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Trevor Lloyd Baker. What school of economics did you attend. Whatever a company makes as a product is irrelevant. When staff are working they get paid,they buy from local shops which in turn employ more local people who spend money. Who do you think pay for local government jobs? it comes from the tax working people pay every week.
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Yet another nail in the coffin for British Industry brought about over the last thirty years by the EU and their Lib/Lab/Con lackeys at Troughminster. This country is slowly and painfully being taken apart. Economic Subversion is the best way to describe it.
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Sunnycouple.
I agree with Trevor Lloyd Baker (to an extent) and with you. In broad terms the only industries which are truly relevant are those which feed, clothe and house us and those which provide necessary pharmaceuticals. If it really comes down to it all other products are “novelty goods” which are not necessary for daily life. Unfortunately Trevor Lloyd Jones seems to think only Waterford Wedgewood comes into this category, not his CD/DVD collection, his TV, his computer etc etc.
As you say, it is “novelty products” like these that keep the world’s economy going in the 21st century including paying for the government.
Let’s hope there is somone out there who is farsighted enough to buy this company or parts of it and to keep these famous old names alive (on both sides of the Irish Sea). If I was in a position to I would love to do so but I am not.
ET.
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