I have been in and out of these a few times :-)) ..... bumping around their bottom but starting to bounce a little ..... closed @ 87/90p on Friday.

They have fallen from grace because of poor distribution probelens caused by poor management and an out of House warehousing system. THis is being sorted and new guys have replaced the old .....

Great brand name and selling could be overdone ..... anyway I am in for a few @ 90p and will let them ride for a while - not a t trade. Recent director buying around this price


ains


bought @ 90p - currently moving up at 141/145p 13/05 = plus 56.66% net

March 27, 2003

Mothercare in warehouse deal
By Sarah Butler TIMES



MOTHERCARE, the specialist retailer, is to retain the warehouse that has been at the centre of its financial problems over the past two years.
After an operational review, Mothercare has renegotiated its contract with Tibbett & Britten, the logistics company that runs its Daventry warehouse. It said yesterday that the new contract would give it greater flexibility because the duration of the contract has been cut from five years to two.

Mothercare has also linked Tibbett & Brittens fees to performance targets, which City analysts argued should already have been in place.

The retailer is understood to have sought quotes on alternative facilities but was eventually forced to renegotiate with Tibbett & Britten because of the costs of terminating its contract and relocating elsewhere.

Mothercare claimed that the Daventry facility is operating more efficiently, but admitted that it would continue to use a back-up warehouse in Coventry at least until 2004. A spokeswoman said: Mothercare has taken some costs out, things are running more efficiently now but there are more to go.

She said that renegotiating the contract gave Mothercare stability while it assessed its total supply chain and had the freedom to quit Daventry in two years if it was necessary.

Analysts welcomed Mothercares decision to stay put at the Northamptonshire storage facility, saying that it was positive for the business at this stage. Iain McDonald, of Numis, the brokerage firm, said: This is good news. I am sure Mothercare would rather it didnt need the additional capacity but the bottom line is that it has got to get stock into the stores and this ensures it can deliver that. He added: It has enough going on in the business right now with product and store development and they need to put this issue to one side and get on with running the business.

Mothercares shares rose 2p to 101p yesterday.

Bernard Cragg appointed non exec - brian Hardy steps down

shares are 100/103p up way over 10% since we started



ains

Mothercare said that it has appointed Bernard Cragg as a Non-executive director to the Board with immediate effect. Bernard Cragg is Chairman of Datamonitor and a Non-executive director of Bank of Ireland, U.K. Financial Services and Bristol & West. Brian Hardy, who is currently a Non-Executive director will step down at Mothercare's Annual General Meeting in July 2003.

Legal and General announce a notifiable interest of 3.97% :-))

Still @ 100/103p against the buy @ 90p :-)) - Will add a few more as funds materialise from my ENIC venture


ainsoph

Moving up fast ..... in symathy with selfridges I suspect :-))



ains

On the move again .... over 3% up intraday @ 106/110p .... showing a 15% net gain on these over 9 weeks


ains

Ticking up lots on no volume - 5 month high @ 110/115p

nice close @ 117/119p on relatively modest volume .... up 30% net since we started and 9% today



ains

A mini bout of early morning profit taking was soon squashed and we are on the move northwards again ..... 118/123p up over 2% intraday on high volume of nearly 200K


ains

M+G have added another 127K and have a total of 10.6 million shares or 15.03%

Currently 120/124p


ains

Ticking up again @ 123/126p ...... highest for 8 months

Lot of talk in recent days that looking after children is one of the fastest growing areas in the service industry - just wondering if this brushes off on to parents spendng more



ains

Still ticking up @ 126/129p .... keeps looking over bought on the ST indicators .... but becomes even more so

H2 later this month - maybe some good news is on it's way


ains

Up again on early morning buys ..... something is going on


127/131p

Ticking up again @ 132/136

...... and again @ 135/138 on modest volume ..... now showing a 50% net gain since we started :-))



ains

Debs have just received a bid and with selfridges also on offer - starts to look interesting



ains

138/142 up 7.69% on the day .... looks like the retail sector is still looking for consolidation

LONDON (Reuters) - Department store chain Debenhams says it has received an indicative 425 pence per share cash offer from Permira Advisers, valuing the firm at about 1.54 billion pounds.
The firm DEB.L said its board had agreed that the firm's executives could work on the indicative offer proposal.

bouncing back again afer some profit taking ..... now 137/141p with mm buying

Still ticking up on vague rumours ..... now 141/145p up 2.5% on the day and a massive 57% since we started 3 moths ago ..... volumes have been high for the last few days and we are on a new 8 month high for the shares


ains