Sales frozen out as two warn over profit plans

Two more major high street names have fallen victim to December's sub-zero temperatures and heavy snow, as Mothercare and Clinton Cards both warned that full-year profits would be lower than expected.

At Mothercare, the weather disruption hit both the chain's on-line and in-store trading, with toy sales suffering the most.

Meanwhile, like-for-like sales at Clinton Cards shops fell 2 per cent during the five weeks to 2 January, while the group's other major business, Birthdays, suffered a fall of 1.5 per cent.

Like-for-like sales in Mothercare's 377 UK stores - many of which are in out-of-town locations - were down 5.8 per cent during the 12 weeks to 1 January. Toy sales at Early Learning Centres were hit particularly hard during what would normally be the chain's biggest week of the year.

Neil Harrington, Mothercare's finance director, said: "The snow was a pain in the neck. Our customers have young babies and pushchairs or are pregnant, and don't come out in the snow."

Snowfall in the early part of December made it harder to fulfil online orders, and forced the group to bring forward the cut-off point for guaranteed Christmas deliveries.

Although trading has improved since temperatures began rising, Mothercare said profits for the year to April would be less than City expectations that were previously in the region of 41 million. House-broker JPMorgan Cazenove has cut its forecast by 16 per cent to 34.1m.

Clinton Cards said its Christmas trading shortfall would lead to "significantly lower" profits for the year to the end of July, though the group was already struggling to match last year's result, which slumped to 13m versus 24m previously.

The group is in the midst of overhauling its 649 Clinton stores, including a new logo, redesigned shop fronts and new uniforms. The company said yesterday that it was also on the brink of unveiling a new website that will feature personalised card and gift services.