Unexpected resignation at Waterford Wedgewood

PETER Cameron, the chief executive of struggling luxury goods maker Waterford Wedgwood, has stepped down unexpectedly.

Mr Cameron, who took over as chief executive in September 2005, will initially be replaced by David Sculley on an interim basis while the company finds a permanent replacement.

Mr Sculley, 61, has been a non-executive director of Waterford Wedgwood since 1997 and is chairman of two of its subsidiaries, Josiah Wedgwood & Sons and Royal Doulton.

Waterford Wedgwood said yesterday that Mr Carmeron was leaving to “pursue his own business interests”. A spokesman for the company could not say if Mr Cameron would be receiving any severance payment.

The company’s most recent annual report (2007) shows he holds 17 million shares in Waterford Wedgwood and options over a further 107 million with shares in the company trading at just above 1c each.

Mr Cameron’s departure comes a month after the company said sales, in the financial year that ended March 31, were 4% lower than the previous year and that it was cutting 300 jobs.

Tony O’Reilly, Waterford’s chairman and majority shareholder, said that Mr Cameron had led “a very substantial rationalisation of the business and has championed a number of marketing initiatives which will bear fruit in the years ahead”.

Since Cameron’s arrival, the company has cut thousands of jobs, including nearly 500 at its crystal factory in Ireland, in a bid to cut its losses. Dr O’Reilly and his brother-in-law Peter Goulandris have pumped in hundreds of millions of euro of their own money to keep the company afloat. Last December private equity firm Lazard invested €50m in the company. Dr O’Reilly added that Mr Sculley has been centrally involved in the cost saving plans and knows the company “inside out”.