It's actually more complicated than it first appears. Waterford was having difficulties keeping their market share before 9/11, because there has been a lot of competition, especially from the former Eastern Bloc countries, in the crystal market. While some cheaper crystal is shoddy, much of it is of good to high quality--as good as Waterford--but it was being sold on the world market to undercut Waterford and the other big names internationally to gain market share.

Waterford's largest export market is the US, so the recession (which started before 9/11) had an effect, and then 9/11, another hit. I don't know that any management team would have had any better luck, considering the changes in the global crystal market in the past 10-15 years.