Waterford Wedgwood: a 'national disaster' - crystal collapse

by LotusFlower | January 5, 2009 at 06:33 am

2825 views | 31 Recommendations | 18 comments

Update : Waterford Crystal Workers Occupy Plant

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Waterford is synonymous with crystal glass. The production of Waterford Crystal is part of Irish heritage and today comes the news that Waterford Wedgewood has suffered financial collapse and is set to close.

This is not just a blow for workers at the company but for the whole area and beyond as the famous Waterford glass works brings over 3000, 000 visitors to the area a year and these form a large part of the economic activity for the City and beyond.

The famous New Year crsytal ball in Times Square was made in Waterford but now even the best crystal ball viewers are finding it hard to see anything positive in today's news from Waterford.

The collapse of Waterford Wedgwood hit the Irish city that shares the name like a bombshell. Jack Walsh, the city’s mayor, described himself as “very shocked, it’s very grim”.

Mr Walsh said the scale of the disaster for Waterford, which is synonymous with its world famous Waterford Crystal, was unparalleled. Glass, or crystal, has been manufactured in Ireland’s fifth largest city since 1783.

“It goes beyond the jobs for the city, it has huge implications right across the hospitality industry,” said Mr Walsh.

“Over 300,000 visitors come to Waterford every year – that’s a huge attraction for Waterford. This is a national disaster.”

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azzayindia

at 08:44 on January 5th, 2009

it is really sad hope the recession ends soon

LotusFlower

at 08:47 on January 5th, 2009

me too - this is an iconic company and so important to the community it sits in

dunkelberg

at 08:55 on January 5th, 2009

It's a sad day indeed.

Iffy (not verified)

at 09:24 on January 5th, 2009

The UK is going down the toilet for some very concrete reasons: they have become ridden with debt, they make few things people want at prices people can't afford. Service is usually very poor in the UK and the population has large percentages on some sort of welfare scheme or other.

nbklx17 Sandy

at 09:35 on January 5th, 2009

This Waterford crystal Music Box was given to me by my husband as a retirement gift. It is one of my special treasures!

nbklx17 Sandy has contributed a photo to this story.

anarkissed

at 10:06 on January 5th, 2009

I wonder why they can't just scale back operations till it's profitable? With a tourist trade and name recognition they should be able to keep a smaller workshop going.

ImPictureMan

at 10:17 on January 5th, 2009

I visited the Waterford Crystal Factory in Ireland in March 2008. I was in Ireland as photographer for our local high school Marching Band. They were invited to march in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin. We took a side trip to Waterford where I viewed this beautiful piece of art.

ImPictureMan has contributed a photo to this story.

kevinh_photos

at 12:03 on January 5th, 2009

Wonderful Waterford Crystals............another piece of history gone.

Oscar_from_Denmark

at 12:05 on January 5th, 2009

The beautiful and world famous sport trofees in elegant display...

Oscar_from_Denmark has contributed a photo to this story.

j.marshall2006

at 13:42 on January 5th, 2009

This is the backup of millennium ball dropped in NYC on the advent of 2000.

j.marshall2006 has contributed a photo to this story.

mamasuz

at 14:50 on January 5th, 2009

Scoring the crystal for cutting quality inspection

mamasuz has contributed a photo to this story.

mulberry956

at 15:19 on January 5th, 2009

I am crushed. Waterford was such a source of pride for the people. It took years to learn the trade. What beautiful art. People don't believe it is made individually-it is so uniform. I visited in the summer of 2008-and was not very excited about it until I got there and saw the operation first hand. My heart aches for the people there.

conibonjovi

at 17:06 on January 5th, 2009

I was bringing this small bear from Australia to visit the factory.

conibonjovi has contributed a photo to this story.

James Connolly (not verified)

at 17:21 on January 5th, 2009

Its a sad day for Waterford Crystal and the Irish people. Having worked there as a master-cutter for 20 years, it makes my heart heavy to see this the beaituful crystal being out-sourced to sweat shops in Slovenia and Indonesia. It really doesn't surprise me with this bancrupcy move, just another injustice to the employees who I believe have suffered enough.

onepeggy

at 18:16 on January 5th, 2009

When we were at Waterford in July 2008, they told us that more and more of the work was being outsourced to eastern European countries. We were careful to check that our purchases were items created in Ireland.

Most of us felt that even though the prices were high, people would be more likely to purchase items from Ireland. I wish I'd had the money for this beautiful Waterford vase. It cost four hundred Euros and was beyond my means.

onepeggy has contributed a photo to this story.

generaldecay

at 23:21 on January 6th, 2009

This is heartbreaking for Waterford and for Ireland.

kybrat

at 16:53 on January 7th, 2009

I took this picture at the Waterford Crystal Factory in the summer of 2008. The gleaming crystals enchant the eyes as it looks as if the horses are running free like in a fairy tale.
Photo by L. Welch

kybrat has contributed a photo to this story.

Pete Cheyney, Director- Corporate Communications, Waterford (not verified)

at 07:10 on January 23rd, 2009

Waterford, along with many other quality manufacturers, has out-sourced certain lines or products to meet the competitive demands of our discrimating customers. Outside manufacturers are chosen with great care and only after rigorous inspection by Waterford quality control and manufacturing management. Each new resource is carefully screened to insure that they meet or exceed the demanding criterial defined by our Social Compliance requirements. Waterford oversees every aspect of our product design, crafting, packaging and delivery regardless of its country of origin to insure that all products are designed and crafted to our extraordinary standards.