Jun 6 2003
After a number of years of non-profitability, Waterford Wedgewood is ending an era and closing its two Johnson Brothers plants at Stroke-on-Trent after 120 years of production. The Johnson Brothers plants made moderately priced earthenware for Waterford.
They will continue to produce the earthenware product lines at a number of opther locations, including a new pant to be constructed just south of Beijing, China. By moving production to China, they believe that they generate cost savings of 70% for the group. However, the move will cost them £47 million over the next two years.
Some of the production will be shifted to Wedgewood’s Barlaston factory, just outside of Stoke. This will preserve some 275 jobs. The remainder will be outsourced to Thailand and Malaysia.
Waterford was forced to take this action before more of their business became endangered. Officials are meeting with union representatives to try and minimise job losses, which they hope can be restricted to voluntary redundancies, and to negotiate severance packages.
This restructuring plan is hoped will yield improved profitability when the global economy picks up and demand grows, through reduced production costs and more effective capacity utilisation.
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