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Authoritative Independent Monthly Share Selections Using Technical & Fundamental Analysis

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Mothercare - Difficult UK trading

June 2011

Investing in shares may lose you all or some of your money. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Some of the shares recommended here may be small company shares, which can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade and this makes such shares more risky than other investments.

  • Epic Code:
  • MTC
  • Price:
  • 446p
The rising cost of living, bad winter weather and austerity budget fears led to difficult Q4 trading in the UK. Although total sales rose 4.7%, gross margins slipped 2.5% in order to fully clear autumn / winter stocks. For the year as a whole  like-for-like sales fell 4%. As planned, during the year Mothercare closed 26 high street stores and opened 12 larger out-of-town ones. Over the longer term Mothercare still expects to achieve £10m p.a, savings from realigning its store portfolio away from the high street and in favour of its larger units. It also expects a sales boost from last year's  Boots wholesale deal as well as further cost savings.The overseas picture is also brighter with international franchisee r ...

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With small companies there is an above average degree of risk compared to buying blue chips. Please be aware that we have not assessed the suitability of any of these investments for you. The newsletter simply states a personal view and diarises the editor’s investment decisions. Please speak to your stockbroker or other qualified individual to ascertain whether any of these companies mentioned would form useful additions to your own portfolios. Past performance is no indication of future success.

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