Chinese Dragon beckons for Crystal Workers
Wednesday, 1st February 2012
Up to 160 former Waterford Crystal workers could soon be winging their way to China if a new enterprise to be launched by Declan Fearon, Director of Tipperary Crystal, takes off. Mr. Fearon, who recently told a Sino-Irish Business and Entrepreneurship Seminar, that his company decided to take a look at doing business in China after the closure of Waterford Crystal which led to its huge inventory being sold off cheaply. However the idea for opening a glass factory specialising in Crystal took hold when he realised that there was very little crystal in China. Considering the huge boom in the luxury goods market in that country he realised that this was an opportunity that he could capitalise on. He engaged Morgan Stanley to help find local partners with the idea of opening a crystal factory in China. He eventually made contact with Linda Zhou who is one of the richest women in the country. She eventually decided to back crystal glass and help build the first real crystal glass factory in China. The former workers from Waterford Crystal would staff the new factory and would work six weeks on and two weeks off. A shop selling Tipperary Crystal was opened in China two weeks ago and on the first day it sold unique items priced up to e5,000.
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