Waterford Wedgewood Group has no plans to lay off any of its employees in Britain, despite the strength of sterling.

Yesterday one of the company's main competitors, Royal Doulton, announced it would be seeking 330 redundancies at its operations in Stoke-on-Trent.

A Waterford Wedgewood spokesman said the company operated a "hedging programme" when trading in different currencies and this had "negated much of the pressure".

According to Royal Doulton's chief executive, Mr Patrick Wenger, the strength of sterling has created a "difficult worldwide trading climate for many manufacturers, including Royal Doulton".