Mothercare: История развития и присутствие в России

British retailer of products for expectant mothers

(Ireland)
(Germany)
(Russia)
(Poland)
(The Netherlands)
| location = Cherry Tree Road, Watford, Hertfordshire
| key people = Clive Whiley (chairman)
| industry = Retail
| products = Baby products
| revenue = £513.8 million

The company was founded by Selim Zilkha and Sir James Goldsmith in 1961. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1972. and rebranded these stores as Mothercare World. In May 2000, the Bhs stores were sold to Philip Green, In October 2007, it launched Gurgle, a pregnancy and parenting social networking website. In November 2009, Mothercare acquired the 50% of Gurgle that it did not already own. In July 2010, Mothercare bought the trademark and brand of Blooming Marvellous, a privately owned rival. In May 2018, it was confirmed that Mothercare would close 50 stores in the United Kingdom under company voluntary arrangement schemes affecting three subsidiaries: Mothercare UK Limited, Early Learning Centre Limited and Childrens World Limited. The Early Learning Centre business – which operated in 80 UK stores and 400 overseas franchises – was sold to the Entertainer group in March 2019. During the 2019 financial year, the company's Watford headquarters was sold in a leaseback transaction which raised £14.5M. In November 2019, the company put Mothercare UK (and Mothercare Business Services) into administration; all the UK shops and the UK website closed soon after. In January 2019, Mothercare announced that its store closure programme was ahead of schedule and the group was on course to have 79 shops by the end of March 2019. Following the closure of the UK business, from mid 2020 some Mothercare branded products were to be sold by Boots, both online and in stores.

In September 2014, Mothercare made a nine for ten rights issue at 125p per share, a discount of 34.2 per cent to the then current share price, in order to raise £95m net of expenses, to be used to pay off £40 million in loans. By March 2018, Mothercare were in talks with the banks to waive their covenants, causing the company's share price to fall by one third to 22 pence per share, and had a pension shortfall of £80m.

On 4 November 2019, Mothercare announced it was appointing administrators for its UK operations of 79 stores, placing 2,500 jobs at risk. The company, which suffered a loss of £36.3m during 2018–19, stated the decision came after a review made clear that the business would not return to profitability. On 5 November, it was announced by the administrators that there would be a phased closure of all UK stores and its headquarters.

In 1983, M. H. Alshaya Co. began its first franchise operation with the Mothercare brand in Kuwait, which was also its first international store. Alshaya operates Mothercare franchises in the Middle East, North Africa, central and eastern Europe and Russia.

In Singapore, the Mothercare brand is represented by Kim Hin International Pte. Ltd. which began in 1984 by its founder and current chairman, Pang Kim Hin.

The British retailer Poundland planned to open a store in Biggleswade, dubbed "Motherland", the logo featured a similar logo to Mothercare's. On 9 February 2023, Mothercare sent a cease and desist to the discount retailer, the store was renamed to "Parentland" and now uses the same font as the Poundland logo.