Irish jobs safe amid franchise closures

The 350 jobs in Mothercare Ireland will not be impacted in anyway by Mothercare UK’s decision to close 111 branches in Britain.

Following a sharp decline in sales, Mothercare UK is embarking on a restructuring of the business that will result in job losses and store closures.

Mothercare Ireland is a separate and wholly owned Irish company. Mothercare Ireland is one of the original partners of the hugely successful Mothercare International Group, and currently the fifth-largest partner in the world.

“We’re an independent Irish-owned franchise. We’ve nothing to do with Mothercare UK and the recent announcement of job closures will not impact on us,” Mothercare Ireland’s operations manager, Jonathan Ward, said.

Mr Ward said that all the 350 jobs in the Irish Mothercare franchise were safe and despite operating in a difficult economic climate, the Irish franchise wasn’t considering any shop closures.

“The last year has been challenging but [we’re] not looking at closure or anything like that,” he said.

Mothercare UK announced yesterday that following a fall in sales, it was going to axe 111 stores and 750 jobs.

British like-for-like sales fell 9.5% in the first 12 weeks of the year to March 31, compared with 3% decline in sales the last quarter of 2011.

Mothercare UK executive chairman Alan Parker said the changes will see the group transformed into a “lean, more competitive business”, adding: “Mothercare is a great global brand with strong international partners.

“Today marks the beginning of a three-year turnaround and I am confident we will deliver a sustained recovery and long-term success.”

The group secured a refinancing deal with its banks HSBC and Barclays, to fund the store reduction programme, increasing lending from £80m (€96.8m) to £90m.

While the group has suffered at home, it is being propped up by a strong performance overseas, where it has 1,000 stores, with international sales growing 18% in the fourth quarter.