REFERENCE was made this week to some fashionable business speak buzz phrases when Irish pottery group Belleek bought itself a strategically important slice of the quality china market with the takeover of Aynsley China. The acquisition, believed to be worth around £7 million, will position Belleek as a significant force in the global pottery and china giftware market, with both companies benefiting through "synergy" and "critical mass".

These snappy management sound bites, plagiarised from the language of nuclear fission, are now commonly used in a commercial context, somehow inappropriate in the delicate pottery and china business. In a china shop critical mass, like the proverbial bull, could be bad news for the inventory.

Fusion of the two, internationally known brand names will double annual turnover at the Fermanagh based Belleek, which already incorporates. Galway Irish Crystal, to around £30 million, with 750 employees critically massed on the payroll.

Apart from a strong presence in Britain, the Stoke on Trent based Aynsley has a marketing and distribution network in Asia and the Pacific Rim, areas of considerable potential for Belleek and Galway Crystal product lines. Belleek offers reciprocal benefits to Aynsley in the US, where the Irish group is well established.

Belleek chairman, Dr George Moore, said that the new grouping would derive strength from shared sales, marketing and product development. Dr Moore also said that the group was interested in further growth through appropriate acquisitions.

Aynsley is currently a profit maker with annual profits in the order of £1 million. The Belleek Group as a whole is said to be trading "exceptionally well ". Fusing such fast breeder corporate elements could well produce a profitable chain reaction.