Mothercare offsets UK slowdown with overseas sales
12 January 2012 10:28
Mothercare today confirmed a drop in UK sales as it continues to struggle in its home market, but flourish abroad.
The mothers and children's group, which operates around 350 stores in the UK, said that like-for-like sales in its domestic market were down by 3% in the 13 weeks to January 7th.
The figure is better than the 7% decrease reported in August and included a 5% increase in December, although this performance was helped by comparisons with the cold snap the previous Christmas.
Total global sales were down by 1.2% despite a 3% increase in its worldwide network. Mothercare has 1,000 stores outside the UK.
Today's update comes after a tough 2011 for the group, which saw it place its entire UK business under review after half year losses of more than £80 million and the departure of chief executive Ben Gordon.
Executive chairman Alan Parker said: "In the UK, the better like-for-like sales performance was achieved in an increasingly competitive consumer environment.
"Additional promotional activity was successful in driving a 5% like-for-like sales increase in December."
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