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Mothercare PLC on Thursday named Dan Le Vesconte as its chief executive, in hopes that the new boss will tackle the double impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
Mothercare is a Hemel Hempstead, England-based retailer to parents and young children. Its shares were up 10% to 7.26 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
On Monday, Mothercare appointed Dan Le Vesconte as its new chief executive, joining in January. The company said he has held senior leadership roles for several ‘globally recognised’ brands, including A&F Corp, Dr Martens PLC, and VF Corp.
Chair Clive Whiley said: ‘Today I am delighted to announce the impending arrival of Dan Le Vesconte as our new CEO,. With extensive experience in the retail direct-to-consumer, wholesale and licensing sector, he will be a great asset to the executive team.’
In the 26 weeks ended September 24, revenue fell to £38.5 million from £41.7 million a year earlier.
Pretax profit dropped sharply to £800,000 from £4.0 million.
The company explained that its interim results were hurt by lost retail sales in Russia. It had terminated its right to operate Mothercare branded stores in Russia at the end of June.
Mothercare did not declare an interim dividend, unchanged year-on-year.
Looking ahead, the company expects challenging trading conditions to remain across its markets. In particular, it noted the impact of weak consumer sentiment and strong inflation.
Whiley said: ‘Our immediate priority now remains to support our franchise partners as we together navigate out of this suppressed demand period, recover from supply chain disruptions and rebuild their store footfall whilst growing their digital sales. This inevitably means that a return to pre pandemic levels of trading is taking time, however this will ultimately benefit both our own business and our franchise partners’ businesses in the longer term.’
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