Waterford Wedgewood reveal drop in profits

Waterford Wedgwood has revealed a drop in profits following a wave of job cuts.

Full-year pre-tax profits fell to €42m from €64.5m.

Last November, Waterford said it would spend €57.05m on shedding about 14% of its workforce and on other cost-cutting measures.

The dividend, awarded in euros, rose to 3.10c from 3.06c.

The company was hit by a downturn in US visitors to the UK following the September 11 attacks.

It said the difficult trading conditions experienced in 2001 showed no signs of improving in 2002

Waterford Wedgwood has also bought 500,000 more shares in Royal Doulton , increasing its stake in the company to 21.29%.

Chairman Anthony O'Reilly said: "Difficult worldwide trading conditions in all consumer goods categories posed a challenging year in 2001.

"These trading conditions have shown little sign of improvement in the first two months of 2002 and we expect a similar environment to continue through the first half."