Business
Mothercare Plc : Q1 Trading Update
Mothercare Plc : Q1 Trading Update.
About this update from Mothercare Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n Mothercare Plc : Q1 Trading UpdateMOTHERCARE PLCQ1 trading update Mothercare plc, the leading global retailer for parents and young children, today issues the following trading update, which covers the 15 week period to 9 July 2016. UKUK like-for-like sales up 1.2% with the end-of-season sale brought forward by one week to clear stock following adverse weather in the quarterUK online sales up 6.4% with online now 35.5% of total UK sales (LY: 32.7%). Mobile now 84% of online traffic and 61% of online salesTotal UK sales down (2.1%), reflecting the (4.8%) year-on-year reduction in space Retail space at the end of the quarter was 1.6m sq.ft. with 170 stores (162 Mothercare and eight ELC)InternationalConstant currency sales were up 3.9% during the quarter with approximately half of the growth coming from the Middle East due to the earlier timing of RamadanActual currency sales were up 5.1% with the Middle East and Asia reporting fx gains during the quarter. Although the impact on profit will be limited due to hedging of royalty receiptsSpace was up 2.3% year-on-year with 3.0m sq.ft. of retail space and 1,322 stores (958 Mothercare and 364 ELC) at the end of Q1 Group performance for 15 weeks to 9 July 2016 15 weeks: FY2016 9 July 2016 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 % change year-on-yearUK Q1 Total UK sales (0.9) 1.8 (0.1) 0.8 (2.1) Online sales 23.9 20.4 11.8 5.6 6.4 UK like-for-like sales (1) 1.3 6.5 4.2 2.1 1.2 UK space (change in sq.ft.) (5.3) (7.4) (6.1) (6.4) (4.8) International International retail sales in constant currencies (1) (1.3) 5.6 (1.3) (9.7) 3.9 International retail sales in actual currencies (1) (4.8) (5.3) (9.5) (10.8) 5.1 International space (change in sq.ft.) 7.9 6.6 5.8 4.6 2.3 Group Worldwide sales (2) (3.5) (2.8) (5.5) (6.7) 2.7 Total group sales (3) (5.2) (7.1) (5.4) 1.4 (1.7) Mark Newton-Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Mothercare plc, said:\"Our focus remains firmly on the turnaround of our business and putting strong foundations down for the future and we have made further progress during this quarter.\"\"In the UK sales were impacted by unseasonable weather, this resulted in bringing our ...