Waterford suffers as sales slump

THE pain continued for Waterford Wedgwood shareholders yesterday as the luxury goods group reported grim first-half figures.

A once-off gain on the sale of an American subsidiary allowed the company to report a pre-tax profit of €8.9 million for the six months to September, which compared with a loss of €44.8m last year.

But the company's underlying slump was revealed by sales tumbling almost €50m to €356m, while operating profits of €4.2m last year were turned into losses of €21.4m.