Baby goods retailer Mothercare showed further signs of a turnaround in its troubled UK business today, posting a 5.1% rise in underlying fourth quarter sales.
Mothercare is trying to revive its business in Britain, which generates around 60% of sales, but has suffered heavy losses partly due to cheaper competition from rivals like Primark and online retailers like Amazon.
In September, new boss Mark Newton-Jones tapped investors for £100m to help fund a restructuring, which will include store closures and revamps and improvements to its product range.
The company has also moved to a more full-priced stance over promotions to protect margins.
Sales at UK stores open over a year rose 5.1% in the 11 weeks to March 28, compared to 1.1%growth in its third quarter.
The firm has now delivered positive like-for-like sales growth in each quarter of the year and said its gross margin continued to stabilise.
"It is still early days in our turnaround, but we are putting the foundations in place by modernising and investing in our business," Newton-Jones said.
Mothercare's profitable international business posted sales growth of 11.4% at constant currency in the three month period.
The company, which trades from 189 UK stores and over 1,300 more overseas, is expected to post a profit of £12.3m for the year to March according to Reuters data, up 30% from the year before.
