Former MP’s book blames O’Reilly for collapse of Waterford Wedgwood

Tristram Hunt writes that the ‘buccaneering ex-Irish rugby player’ failed to understand the location-based story of the dual brand

Tony O’Reilly “poured millions in personal investment” into Waterford Wedgewood, along with his brother-in-law. Picture: Getty

The former tycoon Tony O’Reilly’s involvement with the Waterford Wedgwood group from the early 1990s up to the company’s collapse into receivership in 2009 has been described as a “period of grave mismanagement” in a new book by Tristram Hunt, a former British Labour Party MP.

Hunt, who is a former MP for Stoke-on-Trent, where Wedgwood china was founded, heavily criticises O’Reilly in the book, and accuses the businessman of failing to properly understand the ...