Waterford Wedgewood figures show improvement
Luxury goods group Waterford Wedgwood today produced a marked improvement on the disappointing interim figures which led to 1,100 job cuts last year.
The company is still facing difficult market conditions but said an overhaul of the business announced 12 months ago had lifted profitability.
Operating profits for the six months to September 30 rose 40% to €40.6 million while more recent figures showed a 6% improvement in sales.
Chairman Tony O’Reilly said the company had “performed extremely well” during the six month period after scaling back inventories and cutting jobs in factories, including at Stoke-on-Trent and Stourbridge, West Midlands.
But despite the progress O'Reilly warned against over optimism in the run-up to Christmas: “We couldn’t be other than cautious against the background of slow demand for all consumer products in our key markets.”
He said the tight control on costs would continue, particularly through the matching of capacity to demand.
The changes have helped reduce net debt by €55m to €402.1m, with further improvements expected.
Bottom-line pre-tax profits were €39.2m compared with 11.8 million euros (£7.5 million) last time.
In the six month period, turnover was slightly lower at €471.2m after crystal sales fell 6.4% to €158.9m despite Waterford maintaining its market share in the US at 40%.
Sales of ceramic products were €211.1m, down 7.4% on a year earlier.
