Mothercare losses deepen as sales continue to slide

Archived article

Please note that tax, investment, pension and ISA rules can change and the information and any views contained in this article may now be inaccurate.

Struggling infant goods retailer Mothercare booked a deeper first-half loss, as sales continued to slide in a UK business recently placed into administration.

Sales also slipped at the company's remaining offshore stores.

Pre-tax losses for the six months through 12 October amounted to £21.2m, compared to losses of £18.5m on-year.

The company confirmed that its UK business went into administration on 5 November, leaving it only with its overseas stores, which were bundled into the new legal entity Mothercare Global Brand.

Like-for-like sales at the UK business fell another 2.0% during the year.

International retail sales fell 5.3% in constant currency, though Mothercare said that business was showing signs of growth 'in a number of key markets', offset by the Middle East.

In actual currently, international sales were down by a more modest 1.6%.

'This has been an extraordinarily challenging period in Mothercare's 58-year history,' chief executive Mark Newton-Jones said.

'It was simply not financially viable to maintain the UK store estate and supporting infrastructure any longer without putting the whole Mothercare group at risk.'

Newton-Jones said the company was now a 'capital light, cash generative and profitable business' and that it was 'confident in the future of the Mothercare brand'.

'We believe that, without the financial and management burden of running a UK retail operation, we can singularly focus Mothercare on its global international franchise,' he added.