Sales at Royal Doulton, the British tableware company in which Waterford Wedgwood has built up a 14.9 per cent stake, fell by 3 per cent in the last six months, but are declining less sharply than at the same time a year ago.

Royal Doulton, which makes fine china and tableware for the Queen and the Prince of Wales, said it had made £88 million sterling (€145.55 million) sales in the six months to June 30th, compared with £90.3 million sterling in the same period last year.

But with losses before tax of £1.3 million - an improvement on £14.4 million losses in the same period last year - the company said it had turned the corner and was making progress towards its target of a recovery by 2002.

During the six-month period, Royal Doulton incurred one-off costs of £1.5 million, primarily from redundancies. The Stoke-on-Trent-based company is half-way through a four-year restructuring programme, which has already seen it shed a fifth of its workforce.