It was billed as the biggest company a.g.m. ever held in Ireland and involved months of preparation. Yesterday's annual meeting of the shareholders of Waterford Wedgwood was, said chief executive Mr Redmond O'Donoghue, planned "like the Normandy invasion". Not even he, however, could have anticipated it would all go so smoothly.

Even the traffic jams outside the company's Kilbarry plant in Waterford failed to materialise.

The "Tralee dome" was hired for the occasion and 1,500 seats were available, more than three-quarters of which were filled.

Many present were drawn from the 60 per cent of the group's 1,700 Waterford-based staff who are shareholders in the company. Workers who couldn't be present were given time off to watch the event on video screens at the Kilbarry and Dungarvan plants.

Most of those who did go, however, went for the spectacle. Questions to the board were few; challenging ones scarcer still.

It started promisingly when a shareholder from Dublin, Mr Jeremy Kray, asked the chairman, Dr Tony O'Reilly, what benefits had accrued from the acquisition of the German ceramics company, Rosenthal.

Rosenthal was the only one of the four enterprises within the group - the other three being Waterford Crystal, Wedgwood and the cookware manufacturer, All-Clad - which failed to contribute significantly to last year's sales increase of 20.4 per cent to £693 million (€879.6 million).

Mr Kray also questioned the level of borrowings in relation to shareholders' equity and asked about the role of Mr Peter Goulandris, Dr O'Reilly's brother-in-law, who was recently appointed executive chairman, ceramics.

Responding, Dr O'Reilly said the thing which was most required with acquisitions was patience. Rosenthal would deliver significant profits within three years. Debt-equity ratio "went out the window five years ago".

As for Mr Goulandris, the new arrangements in the ceramics division were working well and suited the chief executives of both Wedgwood and Rosenthal, who now reported to Mr Goulandris.

One worker, Mr Milo Lavery, asked why no young crafts apprentices were being taken on. "At the moment we're fine," Mr O'Donoghue assured him. "If we need additional crafts people and apprentices, we will of course."

"You will what?" Dr O'Reilly asked. "Take more on?" Answering in the affirmative, he turned to the questioner: "You were right, Milo". It was that type of a.g.m. with it left to the chairman to try to get a row going.