Mothercare’s report covers the 13 weeks to October 10, during which the company’s UK like-for-like sales rose by 6.5%. The company claimed that this was due to its digital strategy, which saw online sales rise by 20.4%, and the fact that it delayed its end-of-season sale into Q2. Its International retail sales in constant currency were up by 5.6%. However, worldwide sales were down by 2.8% and total group sales fell by 7.1%, due to the UK store closures and ‘foreign currency headwinds for our international business,’ the company stated.
Mark Newton-Jones, Chief executive of the company, said, “The second quarter results are in line with our full year expectations. The UK is continuing to benefit from our strategic initiatives both online and in store, while international has seen the expected improvement in trading. While international markets remain volatile, our franchise partners continue to have confidence and have added further space during the period. However, foreign currency continues to be a significant headwind.”
Reconfiguring of the UK store portfolio continued with ten closures, three openings and six refurbishments completed in the quarter. Our refurbishment programme will see 20 per cent of stores modernised before Christmas. UK is now trading from 173 stores.
