Mothercare’s like-for-like sales show a 1.8 percent dip |
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Sat, 16 Jul 2005 09:35
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Mothercare, the High Street babycare chain, is the latest retailer to climb on the tough-trading bandwagon. But the chain has maintained that all these setbacks in the domestic UK markets have been made up by the surge in overseas sales.
The UK operation showed a marginal rise of 0.1 percent while the international market was up by 30.7 percent. However, the mother and baby clothing specialist has had to deal with a 1.8 percent dip in like-for-like sales in its UK markets. This dip is surprising when compared to the 5 percent surge in like-for-like sales at the same time last year.
Mothercare blamed the change in the timing of the Easter break for its dip in fortunes. However, Mothercare Chief executive Ben Gordon was defiant when he said that his firm had "traded resiliently" in what have been admittedly tough trading conditions.
The company saw five new openings on the UK front while an additional sixteen outlets have boosted its international presence. These take the overseas total upto 236. This is the first time that the overseas outlets outnumber those in the UK.
The pre-tax profits have shown a 3.3 percent rise and stand at £19.6m, the company said in a trading update. "The underlying growth is driven by good franchisee like-for-like sales, combined with our continuing international store opening programme. Our international business has continued to grow strongly and has helped to offset the tougher trading conditions in the UK," Mr. Gordon noted.
He also said that the relocation of the company to a new distribution center in Daventry has passed the first stage and he was hopeful of completing the move by mid-2006.
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