Raising the last Waterford Crystal glass
A blogger once worked at The Nation, while an associate producer of the Emmy-award winning Wide Angle current affairs series from PBS once spent a summer interning at the Washington Monthly. Rainy Day and Lucy Kennedy share a history of magazines. She e-mailed to say that she recently co-produced, edited and shot Raise the Last Glass, a short documentary about the bankruptcy and closing of the Waterford Crystal factory in Ireland in January. The 480 workers refused to go quietly and staged a sit-in that lasted until March, when they agreed to split a settlement of €10 million. On 26 March, KPS Capital announced that it had acquired the Waterford assets.
Once upon a time, expensive pieces of Waterford Crystal were given as wedding presents. Like many such gifts, they were destined to gather dust, even after divorce or death had parted their (un)happy recipients. But then along came Japanese kitchen knives. Now it's about "giving green" for the Big Day. Beautiful pieces of hand-cut crystal, despite their value and symbolism, have become unfashionable. And the same goes for those tea services that have to be locked away to prevent the progeny of the joyful union from smashing them to bits.
Like many businesses, Waterford was unable to change its spots, and its fate was sealed when the company's management, high on Celtic Tiger hubris and intoxicated with cheap credit, bought Wedgwood and Royal Doulton, both on the verge of bankruptcy and both stuck in similar creative and cost ruts. The current downturn, which has hit luxury goods spending hard, marked the end of the road. KPS Capital will keep the brands going, of course, but the crystal will be cut in the Czech Republic and the china will be glazed in China. They call it globalization.
