Wedgewood/Waterford Crystal is going down after 250 years... same problem, took on too much debt. Management foolishly decided to expand to serve customers who aspired to own the best, and to do so, Wedgewood expanded operations... in Indonesia.
Wedgewood would be sitting oon a pile of gold right now had they simply innovated iin design and jacked up their prices to mop up money over the last decade or two.
The good news is more production capacity is now available dirt cheap and another supplier is gone, for those in the housewares business.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Wedgewood Goes Down
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According to the London newspaper 'the Evening Standard', 'While many rivals switched manufacturing to low-cost countries in the Far East, Waterford Wedgwood retained factories in this country and Ireland, only recently opening a factory in Indonesia....'
John Spiers came to mind though when I read one of his competitors collapsed for the self same reason that John's been predicting- companies that have taken on too much debt are finding themselves washed up with the tide going out in this economic downturn.
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