Mothercare trims UK losses as sales slowdown eases

Baby accessories retailer Mothercare today insisted its business was on a “firmer footing” after closing 56 loss-making stores during the past year.

The firm said underlying losses in the UK narrowed to £21.7 million in the year to 30 March, from £24.7m a year earlier. Like-for-like sales across its 196 Mothercare stores and 59 Early Learning Centre branches fell 3.6 per cent, but that marked an improvement on the previous year’s 6.2 per cent slide.

A strong performance at its larger international division, which trades from more than 1,000 stores in 60 countries, made up for the UK deficit as the group’s underlying profit improved to £8.3m, from £1.6m a year ago.

Chief executive Simon Calver, the former boss of Amazon’s Lovefilm International business, described his first year in charge as both “exciting and challenging”.

He added: “I believe the work done over the last year has put Mothercare on a firmer footing, which I and all the great teams in the business look forward to building on in the years ahead.”

Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, said: “Mothercare has clearly made progress. The loss at its UK business has been reduced, whilst the decline in same store sales stemmed.

“The new chief executive’s online experience is sensibly being utilised, whilst the strategy to court growing incomes in the emerging markets remains ongoing.”