UK retailer Mothercare slashed its outstanding net debt to just under £7m last year as it completed a programme of store closures that its leadership hopes will put the company on a more solid financial footing.
The baby products retailer, on an emergency footing, has closed a third of its UK stores in the past 12 months.
Today it registered a loss before tax from continuing operations of £67m compared to £94m a year earlier.
But the company, which aims to be debt-free by the end of 2019, slashed its debt burden by 84.4% compared to a year ago to just £6.9m.
Shares of the owner of the Little Bird, Baby K and Blooming Marvellous brands surged 19.1% to 24.3 pence in response.
Mothercare Ireland is a separately-owned business to the UK buisness and operates 15 Irish stores under the brand.
"We have achieved a huge amount this year, refinancing, restructuring and reorganising Mothercare to ensure a sustainable future for the business," Mothercare UK's chief executive Mark Newton-Jones said.
"The majority of that work is now done," he added.
The UK high street retailer has been facing intense competition from a new generation of online players which forced it to take radical steps last year that included closing over a third of its UK stores.
Like-for-like sales in the UK, where it has been losing money for more than a decade, continued to falter and tumbled nearly 9%. Annual worldwide sales slipped 8% to £1.07 billion.
"The next phase of our strategic transformation plan is to develop Mothercare as a global brand, maximising the opportunities we see across many international markets," Newton-Jones said.
