Mothercare international sales rise 5.1 per cent
Total UK sales during the quarter rose 1.3 per cent. Like-for-like UK sales were up 0.8 per cent.
Worldwide sales for the 13 weeks to 12 January 2007 were up 5.1 per cent, and for the 41 weeks to 12 January were up 5.3 per cent. Mothercare said that “Trading conditions were particularly difficult in November but improved in December,”. As a result the group’s price markdowns were ‘higher than planned’ in the third quarter. Ben Gordon, Chief Executive said ‘Mothercare delivered a resilient third quarter sales performance in what remained a volatile UK consumer environment. Direct in Home sales were up 22 per cent supported by the successful launch in November of our new state of the art online platform, built by Amazon Services. This performance demonstrates the
importance of our multi channel strategy in the UK. The International business continues to grow rapidly with sales up 38 per cent, driven by strong like-for- like sales and 53 new store openings in the year to date, taking the total to 319 including the recent opening of our 18th store in Russia
and our 10th store in India.’
