Waterford Wedgwood said today sales in June and July were down 3 per cent on the same period last year amid "difficult" trading conditions.
However the firm, whose sector has been badly dented by the global economic downturn, said June sales had improved over the previous two months and that July had been its best month for some time, with sales in its key US market up 9 per cent year-on-year.
The firm, best known for its Waterford crystalware and Wedgwood pottery, said it was too early to forecast an outcome for 2003.
"Even the bravest would hesitate to make a pronouncement on the eventual out-turn for this most difficult of trading environments," the company's chairman Mr Tony O'Reilly, said in its annual statement.
Waterford Wedgwood, which is axing jobs and moving production to countries with cheaper labour costs, would push ahead with its €18 million cost-cutting drive, he said.
Earlier this month, Waterford announced 230 job losses at its flagship crystal-making plant in Kilbarry, on the outskirts of Waterford city and imposed a pay freeze on its remaining 1,500 staff.
The firm reported in June that sales had fallen 10 per cent in April and May. Shares in the company were down 1.35 per cent at 19 pence in London by 12.45 p.m. and were untraded at €0.26 on a mildly negative ISEQ.