Respected firm reborn as a craftsmen’s co-op

CREATION ... Aidan Lundy works on a corporate product

Kevin McGrother

January 21 2011

THERE is little to celebrate in the closure of a company that employs more than 30 people but a new co-operative aims to provide a silver lining to the cloud that was the closure of Tyrone Crystal in Dungannon, Northern Ireland.

Like many well-established businesses Tyrone Crystal found it impossible to survive the economic downturn and its closure in March last year brought to an end almost 40 years of what began as an innovative jobs-creation project.

Nearly one year on, its former operations manager Aidan Lundy says: “We knew things weren’t going well – we’d seen a decline over years rather than months – but there was talk of a rescue plan and restructuring, so when the business went into administration it was a big shock.

“A few people were kept on to help the administrator but most of the 35 people working there lost their jobs almost overnight.”

It was a sad end for a company that had been set up with good intentions. Originally established in 1971 by Fr Austin Eustace at the height of ‘the Troubles’, Tyrone Crystal aimed to create skilled work for men with too much time on their hands. Fr Eustace hoped that the provision of work would play some part in improving the wider situation. While Tyrone Crystal’s role in the peace process is debatable, its success as a business is not in doubt.

At its height it employed around 300 people and built a reputation for high-quality Irish crystal tableware.

In recent years the company had diversified into corporate work and trophies – including the trophy for the Canadian Formula One grand prix – but it was not enough to save the business.

It went into administration with losses of more than £400,000. Upon news of the closure, the company’s factory shop sold more than £75,000 worth of stock as people sought a final souvenir – a sign of the affection with which the company was regarded.

Mr Lundy says the jobs lost at last year’s closure are not easily replaced. “The craftsmen who worked at the company were all hugely skilled, having worked there for an average of 19 years and each having served an apprenticeship of around five years.

“Those of these skilled craftsmen who have managed to find work are driving trucks or labouring. It’s tragic.”

It was this lack of suitable work that prompted Mr Lundy and a small group of former colleagues to consider the idea of establishing a co-operative.

“The idea came from one of the craftsmen,” he explains. “A number of us had bought some of the company’s equipment as it was being auctioned off for a pittance. We just put it in our sheds and homes – wherever we could find room for it – in the hope that we’d be able to use it.

“We then had the opportunity to create a memorial sundial for a couple we knew. Doing that job together made us realise how much we enjoyed the work and each other’s company.”

The idea began to take shape with Mr Lundy, Tyrone Crystal’s former designer Niall Dynes, and three of its craftsmen setting up the new co-operative, The Sculpture Designer.

The co-operative only started trading at the end of November and has launched its website www.sculpturedesigner.com where customers can upload their own designs, which the team will turn into art blocks or sculptures. There has already been considerable interest from previous Tyrone Crystal customers and the co-operative is also about to expand its product range to include clocks and lights.

The co-operative members received business training through Invest Northern Ireland’s Go For It programme. Mr Lundy believes that starting small but having big ambitions will be a winning formula. “We’re all self employed and do other work to pay the bills,” he says. “But we believe there is demand out there for what we’re offering. And by keeping overheads and costs to a minimum we feel we can succeed where Tyrone Crystal didn’t.”

The decision to organise the business as a co-operative was a natural one, he says. “On a practical level, no one of us has all the skills needed to create a complete product so we need to work together and draw on each other’s talents.

“We were also very clear that we didn’t want to work in a formal, hierarchical structure.

“We find the co-operative way of working very attractive. It requires quite a bit of trust but that’s fine for us – we all trust each other and believe in each other.”

Category: Miscellaneous