Firm hopes new ventures may spark recovery

Analysis: Luxury goods maker tackles sales growth, writes Jane O'Sullivan Markets Correspondent

The fast-growing Hispanic market in the US, wine lovers and fans of celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay are among the many groups in which Waterford Wedgwood is placing its faith and its future.

Having set about cutting the fat from its business, the troubled luxury goods maker is now tackling the even more challenging task of driving sales growth again after years of declines.

To this end, it has launched a number of new products to bolster its traditional Waterford crystal and Wedgwood china ranges.

Among its latest initiatives is a tie-up with Eduardo Xol, a US home designer with a massive following in the Hispanic community. Waterford is hoping the association will help it tap into the $1 billion spent each year on gift-giving for Quinceineras, the Latin community's coming-of-age celebration.

"It's a business we didn't even know about, let alone participate in. Eduardo gives us access to this," Waterford's chief executive Peter Cameron said.

Other new initiatives include a deal with US wine brand Robert Mondavi, to produce a range of wine glasses which are grape specific.

Thus, wine lovers can buy a Bordeaux glass or a Chardonnay glass, designed by wine makers, in a business Waterford believes could deliver sales of $15 million annually.

The company began shipping a homewares range in association with British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay in May while it hopes to exploit its rights to the Beatrix Potter name when a film about the author, starring René Zellwegger, is released in the autumn.

Many of the company's new initiatives, such as a garden range, are focused on the large US market, on younger consumers and on less formal products which the company hopes will eventually pay dividends.

It believes these new ventures could boost sales by more than $120 million annually, helping set it on the road to recovery.

Whether shareholders agree remains to be seen. The company's majority shareholders, chairman Sir Anthony O'Reilly and his brother-in-law Peter Goulandris, have agreed to take up their rights under the open offer at a cost of some €30 million.

But having already faced three such cash calls in the last three years, other investors may be more circumspect.

Davy Stockbrokers is, however, banking that the hoped-for improvement in sales, and a consequent upturn in the share price, materialises over the next 12 months. But the broker has an opt-out clause. If Mr Cameron and his management team fail to deliver, it can sell the shares it retains back to Sir Anthony and Mr Goulandris at six cent each.

Other shareholders may yet face the same option, despite having bought in at far higher levels.

A take-private of the group by the O'Reilly/Goulandris camp has long been mooted.

The next 12 months look set to be make or break for Waterford Wedgwood, at least as far as it current structure goes.