05/01/2010

Waterford Crystal Sale Shatters Hopes

Former staff hoping to get back to their jobs at Waterford Crystal have seen their hopes shattered as the site goes up for sale today.

Bankruptcy officials closed the crippled factory in January 2009 and now a receiver, appointed a year ago, has decided to put the 36-acre site at Kilbarry, near Waterford city, on the market, ending hopes of reviving crystal production there.

The crushing news for the workers also means an end to a 60 years legacy of lead-crystal production in the southeast city of Waterford.

According to American news network CNBC, the new owners of the Waterford brand, KPS Capital Partners of New York, have already shifted production to Germany and Eastern Europe.

The news is all the more heartbreaking for the community now out of work as it was originally thought that the new owners, the KPS Capital Partners group, would save the plant and step in to protect the business from collapse.

David Carson, the Irish accountant handling the dismantling of Waterford Crystal's Irish operations, said the factory is being offered for sale as a development site rather than as a continuing operation. Currently the old site includes the Waterford Crystal visitor centre, and is valued between €10m and €20m.

The rest of Waterford Wedgwood's businesses were sold to a US investment firm last February, which now produces crystal under the Waterford brand in Germany.

(DW/BMcC)

Related Northern Ireland Recruitment News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

01 November 2007
Waterford To Shed 500 Staff
It has emerged that 500 jobs are likely to be lost at Waterford Crystal. Workers' representatives have already been told to expect an announcement on restructuring at the plant.
01 November 2007
Government Will Support Redundant Waterford Workers
Every effort will be made by the Government to find new jobs for hundreds of Waterford Crystal employees facing redundancy, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen has told the Dáil. Tánaiste Mr Cowen, who was deputising for the Taoiseach, said the job losses were trade-related and inevitable.
17 July 2013
Call For Govt To Do The Right Thing For Waterford Crystal Workers
Speaking in Leinster House ahead of today's planned protest by Waterford Crystal workers at the Dáil, Sinn Féin spokesperson on Workers' Rights, Senator David Cullinane referred to the need for workers to campaign and protest outside Dáil Éireann to get what they are legally entitled to as disgraceful.
06 June 2012
Coffey Urges IDA To Deliver Jobs In Waterford
Fine Gael Waterford Deputy, Paudie Coffey, has urged the IDA to deliver on investment and jobs in Waterford. Deputy Coffey was speaking after the IDA’s South East Regional Manager said that site visits to Waterford and the south east this year by prospective investorshave surpassed those carried out during all of 2011.
23 June 2010
Crystal Centre To Create 80 Jobs
The new Waterford Crystal visitor centre is hoped to create 80 jobs for the region. Officially opened this week, the Waterford Crystal Experience, incorporating a manufacturing facility, retail store and visitor centre on the Mall in the city centre, will open to the public later this morning.