Mothercare chief executive Simon Calver resigns
Mothercare has announced that its chief executive Simon Calver has resigned and will leave the company at the end of next month.
In a statement, the company said its board had begun the search for a successor. Meanwhile, the day-to-day running of the business will be handled by the executive management team which will report directly to Mothercare chairman Alan Parker.
Calver joined Mothercare from Lovefilm in April 2012, succeeding Ben Gordon who left the business in October 2011 following a series of profit warnings.
Mothercare has since been implementing a restructuring plan in an attempt to turn its struggling UK business around. This included closing a number of loss-making stores.
Never Miss a Retail Update!However, the retailer warned in January that its full-year profits are likely to fall below expectations after UK like-for-like sales dropped by 4% in the 12 weeks to 4 January.
In today’s statement the company said it remained confident in the underlying strength of Mothercare and expects results for the full year ending March 2014 to be in line with current market forecasts. It added: “The strategy remains to restore profitability in the UK business to complement the strong and growing international operations.”
Commenting on Calver’s resignation, Mothercare chairman Alan Parker said: “Since Simon Calver joined Mothercare plc in April 2012, under his leadership the company has made progress in implementing the transformation and growth plan. In particular, Simon Calver’s e-commerce expertise has allowed Mothercare to accelerate its development as a multi-channel retailer in the UK.
“We wish him well in the future. Mothercare has a strong executive management team which is very capable of running the business in the interim while the search for a new CEO is under way.”
Mothercare said that Calver will receive a £250,000 payment in lieu of six months notice.
