Almost 400 redundancies have been made at Waterford Wedgwood, the famous crystal and pottery specialist that fell into administration last week.

Most of the 367 jobs have been cut at Wedgwood’s Barlaston premises in Staffordshire. 245 have gone in manufacturing and operations, 106 in administrative roles and the remainder in retail.

Deloitte reorganisation services partner and joint administrator Angus Martin said some of the redundancies had already been announced by the company before it hit the buffers. Taking into account today’s job losses, Waterford Wedgwood employs 1,501 people in the UK.

He said: “The business will be continuing to trade as normal and the administrators are continuing discussions with parties who have expressed an interest in purchasing the business. Every effort is being made to avoid further redundancies.”

Private equity firm KPS Capital Partners is interested in buying most of Waterford Wedgwood.