Two pieces of good news for Mothercare before we get to the already expected dips in H1 FY25 sales and core earnings. The mother-and-child retail specialist has secured a £30 million joint venture deal in South Asia with Reliance Brands covering India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Bangladesh, and revised a refinancing agreement to service its growing debts.

And so the results for the 26-week period to 28 September. As expected, worldwide retail sales by franchise partners slipped 12% year-on-year to £121.2 million, or down 9% at constant currency, citing unchanged, problematic conditions in its Middle Eastern markets.

Adjusted EBITDA plummeted 53% to £1.7 million while group adjusted profit from operations dipped 68% to £1.1 million. That meant the group pre-tax adjusted loss before taxation was £1.4 million against the £1.8 million profit recorded a year ago.

Net debt increased to £17.1 million from £15.8 million, but following the new JV and refinancing the term loan of £19.9 million, net debt was reduced to a more manageable £8 million.

It also said both proceeds from the JV and the refinancing would be “used as a springboard for a de-leveraged Mothercare to explore the full bandwidth of growth opportunities through connections with other businesses, the development of our branded product ranges and licensing within and beyond our existing perimeters”.

And those ongoing problems with its Middle East ops? Not much in the way of background but Mothercare said its results “continue to reflect the impact of the continuing uncertainty on our franchise partners’ operations” there. 

It added: “We are now focused upon restoring critical mass alongside delivering our remaining core objectives. This is an exciting prospect for all our partners, colleagues and stakeholders as we can finally leave behind the turmoil of recent years that Mothercare has successfully come through”.