Waterford Crystal

Waterford Crystal has gone into receivership, which is really quite sad.  They purchased Wedgewood a while back, so that's going under with them.  In the paper today it said there might be a buyer, but it looks like someone just interested in liquidating stock.  In England other well known companies have collapsed too – Spode, on the queen's tailor Hardy Aimes,  and Royal Worcester.  They say it's because of the sudden downturn in the economy, but I think it's more than that.  It's because the market changed and they faltered in their responses.  At least Waterford did.  

Waterford was once renowned as one of the top producers of crystal in the world, and still are really, and their product was excellent; was collected and became heirlooms.  Sometime in the late 80's or 90's people began to buy more.  I think it might have been during a boom time in the late 80's, but this is just guesswork.  A company like Waterford with an excellent, but expensive product, was 

probably doing well, but not as well as they liked.  And the product was looking a little dated.  So, enter the the concept of diffusion lines like Marquis, which was a bit of a bust, I think.  It always looked a little cheap.  Then onto the John Rocca diffusion line, which I think was to appeal to more modern tastes.  I'll bet this was successful when it first came out.  Thing is, it overstayed its welcome.  It's pretty dated right now.  Then they bought Wedgewood and didn't really do much to it.  It doesn't really sparkle anymore.  But this expansion really only served to diffuse their élan.  I remember going into the Waterford store at Woodbury Commons in '99 or 2000, and thinking the stuff was cheapened. 

If you go to the Waterford headquarters in Waterford, their shop reflects the state of the company.   There is

 beautiful crystal next to crap, and it's all poorly displayed.  And there are no deals.  You'd think if you ventured all the way to Waterford you could at least expect a 10% discount.  No.  Sadly, they've come out with some good things of late, but it gets lost in all the John Rocca and Jasper Conran stock.  The New Lismore line is lovely and very modern with its larger size, long stems and elegant cuts.  Some of the Mark Jacobs stuff was charming and delightful, but it disappeared from stores quickly, and not because it sold out.  They've recently introduced a line of wine glasses with just the cutting on the base of the glass.  These are great glasses for every day.  Not pretentious, but the cutting makes them special, a nice upgrade from a regular glass from Tesco.  Whomever is designing these recent lines has good taste and it's too bad we'll never see what else they had in store.

I think the luxury goods companies that have the best chance of survival are those that didn't "do" diffusion -- Baccarat, Hermes, Chanel, LV.  They'll suffer, but last. They're not spread as thinly.  Of course this is just conjecture.  I hope Waterford finds a way out of this financial hole and that the skilled crystal cutters and designers continue working – if not at Waterford then maybe a new company.

Oh, one more thing.  It seems that whatever group that is responsible on the British Olympics committee, rewarded the contract for commemorative porcelain to a Chinese company.  And this while all these British brands were going under and could have used a hand.  That person, or group, should be fired.  A lower bid is not an excuse for such a decision.  Sure, save some money but, hey, don't trash your national pride in the process.