Waterford Wedgwood has announced that Redmond O'Donoghue is retiring as Chief Executive of the company.
A statement from the company this morning said that he will remain on the Board as a non-executive director and will become a special consultant to Chairman Anthony O'Reilly, Deputy Chairman John Goulandris and the new CEO.
Waterford has appointed Peter Cameron, who is currently Group Chief Operating Officer, as the new CEO with effect from September 1. Mr Cameron has been with the group since June 1999 when it acquired All-Clad, the premium cookware business.
In June, the luxury goods group reported pre-tax losses of €149m for the year to the end of March, as it suffered a 12% drop in total sales to €732.6m.
The month before, Waterford Wedgwood announced a €90m restructuring programme which will see its Dungarvan plant close with the loss of 395 jobs and the loss of 95 jobs at the Kilbarry plant in Waterford. In total, 1,800 jobs are being lost across the group worldwide.
'Redmond O'Donoghue has been an outstanding servant to Waterford Wedgwood,' commented Chairman Anthony O'Reilly. 'During his five years as CEO of Waterford Crystal, the business experienced unprecedented growth. Then, as Group Chief Executive, he led the company to its best-ever years in 2000 and 2001'.
Waterford Wedgwood shares closed up 5% to just over six cent in Dublin.
