The Waterford Wedgwood Group is to acquire the brand of the Hutschenreuther porcelain company in Selb in Bavaria, through its German subsidiary Rosenthal AG, which is located in the same town.
However, Waterford Wedgwood will not be acquiring the production capacity of Hutschenreuther AG.
It is understood that Rosenthal's existing production capacity can meet the needs of the Hutschenreuther brand. No purchase price has been disclosed. Waterford, which is one of the world's leading luxury brand groups, is comprised of the crystal division, Wedgwood, All-clad, an upmarket American cookware company and Rosenthal, which produces porcelain in Bavaria.
Hutschenreuther is a respected producer of table top porcelain and giftware, selling mostly on the German market. While representing less than 5 per cent of the Waterford Wedgwood sales, it will complement the Rosenthal product range, which includes Studio Line, Cassic and Thomas as well as Versace and Bulgari by Rosenthal.
Hutschenreuther AG is a subsidiary of Winterling Porzelan AG, which filed for the German equivalent of bankruptcy in September of last year.
A statement from the administrator of the Winterling company yesterday announced the sale of another subsidiary, Arzberg, to SKV GmbH, while he will continue to run the Eschenbach and Winterling activities of the group through the Eschenbach Porzellan GmbH.
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