Last week the firm announced results that were described as "unacceptable" by chief executive Peter Cameron. Waterford Wedgwood posted a net loss of almost 191m for the year to the end of March on sales of 772.6m. In an effort to stem losses, the company is increasingly turning to designers and well-known domestic names.

One of its new lines, hopes Cameron, will appeal to younger buyers. In conjunction with California winemaker Robert Mondavi, it has developed wine glasses for use with specific grape varieties. The ultimate snobbery, perhaps, but Cameron is certain the range will prove a big hit. He may be right.

Also about to be signed is a deal that will see a range of perfumes that will be marketed under the Lismore name. Waterford Wedgwood has lined up names such as celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey in the UK, as well a host of other US domestic divas to launch products that it hopes will propel it out of its financial morass. Waterford Wedgwood, chaired by Tony O'Reilly, reckons that such new initiatives could add as much as 120m to annual sales.

In developing new concepts, Waterford Wedgwood will be striding into an equally competitive market for higher-end homewares.

"We're going to be helped by the collaboration that we're involved in, " said Cameron. "People are putting their name with ours, because they believe their names are enhanced by doing that."

But the company also said it will once again ask its shareholders to stump up money to help in its restructuring. It will be the fourth time they'll have done so in less than three years. So far they have dug deep to come up with 240m, as the company slashes employees and costs to restabilise. Investors would be forgiven for thinking Waterford Wedgwood has never been anything but trouble.

"The real bet you're making when you're outside the company looking in is whether we can take the costs out, " said Cameron last week. "We're so far down that track now, it's obvious we're going to get the benefits of that."

On top of that, the company is having to reinvent itself. It can no longer rely on its more traditional product ranges to grow sales.

"The idea that you're going to sell more cut crystal to the market we're already selling in isn't realistic, " added Cameron, who firmly believes the company is on the cusp of a rebirth.

Still, some analysts aren't convinced.

Philip O'Sullivan of Goodbody Stockbrokers argued last week that Waterford Wedgwood is "still not out of the woods", and needs to show it can "arrest the ongoing decline in sales and make real progress towards a return to profitability".

Davy Stockbrokers, Waterford Wedgwood's broker which will also underwrite the latest share issue that seeks to raise 60m, said it expects the company to generate an operating profit in the second half of the 2007 fiscal year.

But there's no getting past the fact that these are challenging times, indeed years, for Waterford Wedgwood. Cameron said that, so far at least, the company has seen no demonstrable negative impact on sales as a result of higher interest rates either in the US or Europe. But with those rates continuing to creep up, consumers may react in ways that don't help purveyors of luxury and home goods.

Nevertheless, Cameron is hoping to persuade them to part with their money.

He estimates that Waterford Wedgwood will spend between 10m and 15m in incremental marketing in the US in the run-up to Christmas.

"We'll rise and fall with the tide over Christmas, " he said. "I think we're probably more insulated than most companies in the market. A significant component of our business is generated in the bridal segment, " said Cameron, adding that things are no so gloomy in the US that people are going to be postponing marriages just yet.

"But if consumers check their wallets in November and decide they've put so much of it into the gas tank that they're not going to spend so much at Christmas, we would obviously be affected as much as anyone else."

And if by this time next year Waterford Wedgwood has not reported some marked improvements in performance, its shareholders are likely to be a very irate bunch.