Is It Bye To Mothercare?
With the rise of the internet, is there really a demand for brick and mortar stores such as Mothercare?
Retail News
Fashion Wanderer
Mothercare sales continue to fall as on Thursday it was reported that UK sales fell in the 12 weeks that led up to the 24th of March. The report stated that Mothercare's sales have decline by 2.8 percent by comparison with the same period of time last year and have blamed this on the fact far less people are visiting the physical stores. This has resulted in poor footfall due to the growth of online sales which now represent over half of Mothercare's sales.
Chief executive David Wood said "My immediate priority is to ensure Mothercare is put back on a sound financial footing and to improve its financial performance, in this competitive climate, promotional activity has been necessary to stimulate customer demand"
Wood said the firm have been reducing their store portfolio from 140 to 80 "in response to changing consumer preferences"
Mothercare replaced former boss Mark Newton-Jones with Mr Wood just last week as it fends off lenders over its poo financial position.
"We remain in constructive dialogue with our financing partners with respect to our financing needs for FY19 and beyond, and we continue to explore additional sources of financing to support and maintain the momentum of our transformation programme," said Mr Wood.
This slump comes off the back of poor Christmas trading as it struggles to compete with online competitors.