Mothercare Regulatory News (MTC)

2 Apr 2009 07:00



MOTHERCARE PLC

FOURTH QUARTER TRADING UPDATE

Mothercare plc, the leading global retailer of parenting and children's products, today issued an update on trading for the fourth quarter (11 weeks) and the full year (52 weeks) ended 28 March 2009.

Group sales performance : fourth quarter

Total group sales up 5.6%

UK like-for-like sales up 3.7%; total UK sales up 1.3%

Direct in Home sales up 26.7%

International retail sales up 40.0%

Group sales performance : full year

Total group sales up 6.9% (up 2.8% on a proforma basis)

UK like-for-like sales up 1.4%; total UK sales up 2.4% (down 1.5% on a proforma basis due to planned reduction in space)

Direct in Home sales up 30.6% (up 22.4% on a proforma basis)

International retail sales up 44.5% (up 40.9% on a proforma basis)

International like-for-like sales up 6.0% for the full year and up 4.0% in the second half

Gross margin performance

UK gross margin is in line with our expectations. For 2009/10, we expect gross margins to come under further pressure due to the weakness of Sterling; however, we expect this to be partly offset by currency gains in International.

Ben Gordon, Chief Executive said:

"This is another strong performance from the Mothercare group. International goes from strength to strength, with retail sales up 40%. We now have 1,014 stores in 51 countries worldwide.

"The UK business has now delivered 15 consecutive quarters of like-for-like sales growth. UK sales have been boosted by robust performances from the Direct business and the Early Learning Centre inserts now in 84 Mothercare stores, and both brands have gained market share in the quarter. We continue to manage the business tightly to mitigate the effect of currency movements. The group remains debt free."

Enquiries to:

Mothercare plc

Brunswick Group

Note 1 - "Like-for-like" sales are defined as sales for stores that have been trading continuously from the same selling space for at least a year and include Direct. Sales from Early Learning Centre inserts in Mothercare stores are included where they are trading in existing Mothercare space. Like-for-like sales are presented on a proforma basis (note 2). International retail sales are the estimated retail sales of our overseas franchise partners and joint ventures. International like-for-like sales are calculated at constant rates of exchange.

Note 2 - On 19 June 2007, Mothercare acquired the Early Learning Centre. For ease of analysis, certain results are also presented on a "proforma" basis which assumes that the Early Learning Centre had been owned for all of this year and last year.