Luxury goods group Waterford Wedgwood has warned that it sees little improvement in the current difficult trading in the month of June, although chairman Sir Anthony O'Reilly has said that some "green shoots" were beginning to appear.
Sir Anthony was speaking after Waterford Wedgwood reported operating losses of €8.8 million in the three months to the end of March, with pre-tax losses of €14.3 million. While the operating losses were higher than market forecasts, the company said the pre-tax losses were in line with the company's expectations. Waterford has reported the quarterly results as it is moving its year-end from December to March.
The chairman said the group had seen little sign of improvement in January and February, and expected a "similar environment" to continue through June. "The US market continues to be challenging," he added. Waterford Wedgwood has been badly hit by the aftermath of the September 11th attacks and, in the year to the end of December, pre-tax profits halved to €41.3 million.
Sir Anthony's "green shoots" came in the form of sales figures for May, which were the same as last year. This is the first month since August 2001 that monthly sales figures equalled sales for the same period in the previous year.
"Each month has been getting slightly better but it's a slow process," finance director Mr Richard Barnes said. He said the Asian market in general had shown an upturn but everything else was flat to the prior year.
Mr Barnes said the group had substantially improved its debt and cash-flow position. "The cash outflow in the January-March period was a third of what it was in the prior year," he said.
He added that Waterford Wedgwood was comfortably hedged against the weakening US dollar. "The company is actually very well protected against this turn of the dollar, although the market seems to have failed to notice that point," he said. - (Additional reporting by Reuters)
