Mothercare losses widen to £21.4m

Mothercare has reported a wider pre-tax loss of £21.4m for the full-year ended 27 March 2021.

Turnover also plummeted 47.9% to £85.8m, down from £164.7m the previous year, largely due to the continued impact of Covid-19 on trade in the key markets of Russia, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Looking ahead, the group still anticipates that the “steady state” operation of its existing retail franchise operations, in more normal circumstances, should exceed annual operating profits of £15m in future years, underwritten by the planned further reduction in overheads.

For the first 13 weeks of the financial year to March 2021, total retail sales were £94m, generating an adjusted EBITDA of approximately £2.5m.

Clive Whiley, chairman of Mothercare, said: “The past financial year has clearly been a challenging one, however, despite the backdrop of the pandemic, we have made a tremendous amount of progress in fundamentally transforming the group.

“We expect 2022 to be a year of further progress as we focus upon developing our strategy and future plans to optimise the Mothercare brand globally over the next five years. We look to the future with great optimism having established a strong and efficient platform with multiple opportunities for growth.”