Mothercare reports 6.5% rise in Q2 UK like-for-like sales

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Oct 22, 2015

Mothercare, the British baby goods and maternity retailer, has reported Q2 results.

The report covers the 13 weeks to October 10, during which the company's UK like-for-like sales rose by 6.5%. Mothercare said 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. It continued to reconfigure its UK store portfolio in the period, closing ten stores, opening three and refurbishing six. In the UK, Mothercare now trades from 173 stores.

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.

Chief executive Mark Newton-Jones 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.

“In the UK our digital strategy resulted in strong double-digit growth of online sales, which in turn contributed to the growth in like-for-like sales."