Newly appointed Waterford Wedgwood chief is ready to rise to the challenge of a restructuring programme at the ailing homewares group, writes Dominic Coyle

It's hardly the most sought after executive gig in town - facing shareholders worn down by too many failed promises - but if Peter Cameron is worried about the prospect, it doesn't show.

Just two weeks after taking over the reins of one of Ireland's perennial corporate underachievers, he faced long-suffering shareholders at the annual general meeting of Waterford Wedgwood and urged them to keep faith.

It's a big task for investors in a company that has witnessed a series of restructurings followed by further losses and an ever-dwindling share price. But Cameron, with a long track record of success in the homewares business, is unfazed by the challenge.

"We have new people in new positions, even if some of those people have been with the company for a considerable time; we have new products; we have new business initiatives, and we have all the things required to make this company successful," he says.

Before that happens, however, he acknowledges that his first job is to implement the current latest drastic restructuring at the luxury goods group, announced by his predecessor Redmond O'Donoghue.

This includes the closure of the company's manufacturing operation in Dungarvan and the laying off of 1,800 staff across the group's operations globally. The plan will cost €100 million, a sum raised in a rights issue earlier this year.

The fundraising was notable for two reasons - it was priced above the level at which Waterford Wedgwood shares were trading and it was shunned for the first time by a significant number of the company's shareholders, mostly smallholders.

As a result, chairman Sir Anthony O'Reilly and his brother-in-law, Peter Goulandris, who underwrote the issue assumed majority control of the company.

Analysts have largely ignored Waterford Wedgwood since it lost support from institutional investors. As they see it, this is a company running out of last chances.

Cameron, understandably, is not of the same view. "You never want to say it is your last chance," he says. "I don't think it's quite as desperate as that but I certainly think we will never have a better chance. It's our best chance; that's the way I see it.

"We still have lots of positive momentum in the marketplace; we have lots of status and prestige in the marketplace. We have the funding that allows us to get the company rightsized and energised in our new businesses and, if not now, then when do we move forward?"

Waterford Wedgwood has been unlucky. Dependent on the US and Japanese markets, it has struggled with economic downturns in both markets and a relentlessly adverse exchange rate scenario in recent years.

However, the company has also been author of its own misfortunes, most notably in the US. The group was guilty of persevering with its emphasis on more traditional heavy-cut crystal, long after customers' tastes had moved on to more modern informal glassware such as Reidel.

It also stuck resolutely with the policy of distributing its range through A-list department stores, ignoring trends that showed customers increasingly buying their homewares at other outlets such as the Bed, Bath & Beyond chain.

Cameron's arrival at Waterford Wedgwood has been credited with persuading the company of the need to come to terms with the lifestyle changes of its target customer base and of becoming more focused in its approach to distribution channels and customer service - and his appointment to succeed Redmond O'Donoghue was warmly welcomed by the market.

Cameron joined Waterford Wedgwood as incumbent chief executive of premium kitchenware group All-Clad when it was acquired by the Irish group in 1999. He is credited with a fourfold increase in its sales over five years, making All-Clad the jewel in the Waterford Wedgwood crown, before it was sold in 2004 to pay down group debt.

He sees the realigning of the company as a low-cost manufacturer of a product range that will appeal to younger customers with more modern tastes as key to its recovery.

"The company has to find structures that allow it to be profitable at existing or even lower sales levels," says Cameron. "But we also have to get the margins that are associated with premium products. It is those margins that allow you to do the marketing, advertising and brand enhancing activities that are required for a successful profitable consumer product company.

"Obviously that gets into being a low-cost manufacturer, but it also entails fully pricing your products in a way that people still aspire to attain them and are willing to pay the premium for the cachet."

This applies not only to the group's existing range, but to the new products it intends to bring to market.

"We have got 10-12 initiatives that you would describe as elegant casual products that will be breaking into the market, some by the end of the current financial year. We are also introducing new categories like chandeliers that we simply have not addressed previously, but are not unimportant businesses for other people."

The US remains the group's most important market, and it is notable that Cameron has chosen to remain in his native New England while running the Irish-based group.

"I have a very good sense of what is going on in this market and it is our most important market," says Cameron. "I'd say I meet at least weekly with some major retailer and I think that is helpful."

He stresses that notwithstanding its history, it will be largely American tastes that will shape the future of Waterford Wedgwood. "The critical thing for Waterford Wedgwood, given the importance of the US market, is catering to US tastes. That means catering to a younger American customer who is not currently participating in the Waterford Wedgwood franchise because we don't have the products that are compatible with their tastes."

Peter Cameron is not a man for grabbing the spotlight; indeed his idea of paradise is walking by the Atlantic shore in his native New England. However, he is upfront in predicting a return to profitability in the next financial year.

"My expectation is that we will leave fiscal 2006 [ the current financial year ending in March 2006] with a structure and a velocity that creates a profitable entity in 2007 and that includes a fully-integrated Royal Doulton [ the British ceramics group Waterford acquired and merged with its Wedgwood operations].

That vision includes a future for manufacturing in Ireland and Britain, despite the closure of Dungarvan and the pressure to outsource production. "I think there is absolutely no reason in the world that we cannot be competitive on a world basis manufacturing in Britain and Ireland.

Cameron is noted as much for his lack of enthusiasm for the vocal spotlight as for his six foot, five inch frame and penchant for wearing V-neck pullovers under his suit jackets, but he is bullish about Waterford's future. "I couldn't be more confident about our ability to accomplish this stuff," he says. "It's eminently doable."

As shareholders passed around examples of some of Waterford's products of the future like the new Ballet range of glassware, their mood seemed to be that, finally, Waterford Wedgwood might have found the man to lead them back to a profitable future. Can he live up to those expectations?

"I'm sure I can't but whether it is me at the helm or 100 other people, this company is poised to move forward. We're going to deliver enhanced shareholder value and the kind of fiscal performance you'd expect from a legitimate collection of premium products."

Factfile

Name: Peter Cameron.

Age: 58.

Title: Chief executive of Waterford Wedgwood.

Interests: Spending time by the sea.

Family: Married with two adult sons.

Why is he in the news? In his first outing as group chief executive at the company's annual general meeting yesterday, he laid out his plans to lead the company back to profit.