Waterford Crystal to retain just 200 staff in city

THE iconic Waterford Crystal brand which once employed more than 3,000 people in the southeast will soon have just 200 people left in Waterford city following the latest round of job cuts announced yesterday.

Already reeling from a 490-employee cull sought earlier in the year, staff were told yesterday morning that management wanted another 280 redundancies in its bid to cut costs and remain competitive.

The cuts will leave just 70 production staff in the Kilbarry plant in Waterford, mainly making luxury hand-crafted crystal goods for the on-site visitor centre and tourist trail. A total of 200 employees will include sales and marketing, maintenance and administrative staff in the city — down from 3,000 in the early 1980s.

The vast majority of Waterford Crystal production will now take place in central and eastern Europe and in south America, where costs are lower.

“We regret the necessity of ending large scale manufacturing in Waterford, but we reaffirm our commitment to the city,” said chief executive John Foley yesterday in a statement.

“We will retain highly skilled workers, our tourist trail, as well as our gallery staff who together service one of Ireland’s premier visitor attractions.

“The company is proud of its heritage. The city of Waterford remains its home.”

Management told workers at a meeting yesterday that the company is committed to retaining its “intellectual property” in Ireland.

Group chief financial officer, Anthony Jones, said it had become clear that maintaining manufacturing operations in Ireland at their current level was “not feasible” for Waterford Crystal.

“Along with many other companies, we are, therefore, forced to find alternative means of production abroad. We recognise that Waterford is critical to the DNA of our brand and we will retain our visitor centre and some prestigious manufacturing at Kilbarry.”

An emergency meeting was held last night by the UNITE trade union, which represents most of the workers at the plant, as management indicated its intention to enter talks on the coming redundancies.

“Waterford Crystal is too important to the workers, to the city and to the nation as a whole to let it slide away,” said UNITE regional organiser Walter Cullen yesterday.

It is understood that the company will seek redundancies in keeping with its previously-held policy of not implementing compulsory redundacies.

A timescale for winding-down manufacturing at Kilbarry has not yet been finalised and will depend on how negotiations progress between management and the union.

Waterford Chamber chief executive, Monica Leech, said that Waterford and Ireland “are just not in the manufacturing game any more”.

It was essential, she said, that the city held on to the 350,000 annual visitors to Waterford Crystal.

Waterford Wedgwood Plc has been losing money for the last five years and a lot of hopes were pinned on the Government guaranteeing a €39 million bank loan to provide an injection of money earlier in the year.

However, when the Government decided not to underwrite the loan, many felt the writing was on the wall for glass-making in the city. A Waterford Crystal plant in Dungarvan closed down some years ago.