Mothercare’s latest half-year results on Tuesday came just three months after it had reported its full-year figures, but we have no objection to companies reporting more promptly. So what did they show?
Mothercare
The brand owner said the 26 weeks to late September showed worldwide retail sales by franchise partners of £90.7 million, down 25% from £121.2 million, or a fall of 22% at constant currency.
This “largely” resulted from ongoing store closures in its Middle Eastern markets and the planned exit from Boots in the UK. On a like-for-like basis retail sales were down ‘only’ 6% on last year.
It made adjusted EBITDA of £0.8 million, down from £1.7 million, and the group adjusted loss from operations was £0.5 million, worse than the £1.1 million profit a year earlier. The adjusted loss before taxation was £1.1 million, narrower than the loss of £1.4 million this time last year. And the net loss narrowed slightly to £1.7 million from £1.8 million. The company’s net debt fell to £5.8 million from £17.1 million.
The sales fall came as in Middle Eastern markets a net 50 stores were closed in the 12 months to 27 September. These closures were as a result of the “region-wide reduction in footfall and resultant sales, driven by the continuing regional unrest and evolving consumer behaviour. However we do not expect any further significant store closures, as now that the majority of the old inventory has been cleared the profitability of our franchise partner is improving, despite the challenges currently facing retailers in the region”.
Big international deals
Also internationally, Mothercare said it’s made “significant progress” with both the India joint venture with Reliance Brands Ltd and the license agreement for Türkiye, with Ebebek Mağazacılık AŞ.
In October 2024 it announced the Reliance deal with an entry valuation of around £30 million for the South Asian region.
It retains a residual 49% shareholding in the new joint venture company covering Mothercare’s franchise operations in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Bangladesh, which was granted perpetual rights for the use of the Mothercare brand and related intellectual property in those regions.
For FY25, its retail sales in India had amounted to £18.6 million and contributed around £0.4 million to adjusted EBITDA. But in FY24 under the previous franchise arrangements those figures were ar £24 million retail sales and £0.9 million adjusted EBITDA.
That may seem like it’s going backwards but despite receiving revenues at lower rates than previously, it noted that “Reliance have recently confirmed their aspirations for the reinvigorated business to significantly grow revenue levels, and we believe it is possible for them to grow their retail sales to around £300 million in five years, supported by a store opening programme targeting 50 new stores in the region in 2026. We also expect to benefit from both sourcing fees (supplying the joint venture with product) together with the value creation accruing to our residual 49% equity stake”.
As for the Türkiye deal, that was announced in June this year. Its partner Ebebek has some 280 stores and an online business producing revenues of around £400 million together with three stores recently opened in the UK. The license agreement gives Ebebek the exclusive right to use the Mothercare brand in Türkiye on products either designed and sourced by Ebebek or Mothercare for a period of 10 years.
It also allows Mothercare to purchase products Ebebek has sourced for itself, either under its own brands or Mothercare, for sale by its franchise partners outside of the territories where Ebebek trades and to rebrand these products with the Mothercare brand if relevant.
Ebebek is launching Mothercare products in-store imminently, with the full range available in the spring. And it has “expressed interest in extending the relationship to other territories”.
While the headline numbers in the half-year report didn’t look great for the brand, there were obvious signs of improvement in some areas, especially those international deals.
And Clive Whiley, chairman of Mothercare, seemed happy enough. He said: “Mothercare is making good progress against our strategic priorities. After the strategic and operational challenges of the last few years, our performance in the first half shows that Mothercare has been stabilised as a smaller and cash generative business with greatly reduced debt. Our new partnerships with Reliance in South Asia and Ebebek in Turkey are now bearing fruit, underlining the intrinsic value of and opportunity for our brand.”
From this position of “relative strength”, he noted that the key focus for 2026 is to “pursue options to rebuild our scale and operations both in the UK and globally, alongside pursuing the refinancing of our existing debt financing facilities. This is an exciting prospect for our partners, our colleagues and all our stakeholders as we look towards the new year and those opportunities ahead”.
Global luxury giant Richemont reported its UK results earlier this month and now one of its brands, Dunhill (actually, Alfred Dunhill Ltd) has done likewise and what did we find? Ongoing losses for the year to the end of March.
Dunhill
It’s worth pointing out that individual reports such as those filed for an owned company headquartered separately from its parent organisation don’t always tell the full picture for a brand that operates around the world. But with that caveat in mind, here are the figures.
The company reported revenue of £38.6 million, down from £43.8 million in the previous year. And the operating loss was bigger at £59.3 million compared to £47.1 million. The net loss for the financial year was £45.2 million, also a bigger deficit than the net loss of almost £38.5 million 12 months earlier.
While being owned by Richemont, the UK-registered company noted that it’s responsible for the overall maintenance of the brand including determining its global marketing brief and the design of its products.
It said that during the year it received an additional investment of £130 million by way of a share issue to its immediate holding company Richemont Holdings (UK) Ltd. It noted this was to “further invest and develop the Alfred Dunhill brand”.
Frustratingly, there wasn’t much more detail given in the report but it did say that the strategy of the company is to continue to “reinforce the positioning of Dunhill as a leading luxury brand for men”.
And other developments show that it’s been just doing that in the year in question and in the months since that year finished.
Back in September, it announced Matthew Ives as its new CEO. He’s a Dunhill veteran but has more recently been SVP chief commercial officer of a non-Richemont business, De Beers London.
He replaced Andrew Holmes, Dunhill COO and CFO, who’d been interim CEO since the beginning of last year. Previous Dunhill chief Laurent Malecaze had been moved to CEO’s chair at Richemont’s Chloé brand.
Dunhill may have been loss-making but it’s been receiving plenty of praise for its recent collections. In June, Harrods’ fashion buying director Simon Longland called it out as one of the strongest collections in that month’s men’s fashion month.
In fact, it has been widely praised since Simon Holloway took the design helm in spring 2023.
Australian bootmaker RMWilliams has opened its first store in Scotland, “marking a significant milestone in the brand’s UK journey” with the Edinburgh store deemed as its first opening of 2026.
RM Williams
Situated in the heart of the city centre, the new George Street store “brings nearly a century of Australian craftsmanship to one of Scotland’s most established and prestigious retail addresses… sitting among architecture defined by endurance, precision and longevity, which are values long shared by RM Williams”.
Designed by Melbourne-based design studio ACRD, the space “balances restraint, craftsmanship and timeless design, with a focus on quality and subtle references to both Australian and Scottish traditions of making”.
The Edinburgh store “presents a considered expression of the RM Williams world”, offering a range of key services including boot fitting, ongoing repair and restoration processes, complimentary boot polishing, plus embossing or debossing to personalise purchases.
Conceived as a “craft space”, the store offers insight into RM Williams’ approach to “making, highlighting materials, construction and finishing details, and reinforcing the brand’s belief in physical retail as a place for craftsmanship, service and storytelling”.
Karl Wederell , general manager of UK & Europe, said: “Customers from Scotland, and Edinburgh in particular, have supported RM Williams for many years so strategically, it feels right to be opening our first Scottish store.”
TFG London and its brands Hobbs and Phase Eight reported their results a few days ago and now its Whistles chain has done likewise. And just like Phase Eight, it’s obviously faced some challenges in the year to late March 2025.
Whistles
The TFG-owned trio are moving in the right direction on many fronts but that doesn’t mean everything in the garden is rosy for contemporary womenswear label Whistles.
The company said that turnover during the year dropped to £57.7 million from £65.7 million and adjusted EBITDA dipped to £4.7 million from £5 million. Operating profit was down to £1.8 million from £2.5 million and profit after tax fell to £0.5 million from £0.9 million.
The company sells through its own stores, online and through department store concessions and operates both in the UK and internationally.
TFG noted a “steady performance for the year despite the ongoing challenging economic backdrop in the UK”. It added that Whistles grew its direct channel mix to 54.6% from 50% and while there was growth in its own channels, it underperformed in concessions where sales dropped 15% year on year. That reflects the performance at its stablemates Hobbs and Phase Eight with concessions also something of an issue for them during the year.
That was the main cause of Whistles’ 12% turnover drop, along with the fact that the company closed 19 stores while only opening five new ones. In fact, by the end of the financial year in the UK the company had 109 stores/concessions, down from 123 a year earlier.
But there was good news in that the gross margin was up at 69.9% from 67% due to that higher direct channel mix. The company’s distribution costs edged up but that was mainly due to a one-off warehouse move in March, the results filing said. Also good news is that administrative expenses were lower as a result of the drive to control costs.
We’ve reported other positive developments for Whistles towards the end of the year covered here, as well as post-year-end.
In early March this year it joined the ‘Brands at M&S‘ platform. That’s a hugely important move that puts it in front of millions more consumers. OK, it probably wasn’t positive overall in the early months of the deal due to the well-publicised cyberattack that took M&S offline for quite a few months. But it should have an overall beneficial effect longer term.
In April, it also appointed its very first creative director as it aimed to elevate and redefine its design direction and its overall creative vision.
Jacqui Markham joined after a career in which she’d been design director at Topshop and Topman, ASOS and Urban Outfitters Europe. She’d also been a designer at Oasis and Karen Millen and more recently was a freelance design consultant.
Her immediate boss at Whistles, product director Camille Sullivan, said she would be “instrumental in driving both the brand and our product offering forward in our next stage of growth”.
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