Mothercare to close more stores

Struggling retailer Mothercare has announced plans to close more stores over the next three years - it is not known if the Rochdale store on Yorkshire Street is one of the stores at risk.

In May last year, the company said it planned to reduce its total UK stores from 373 to 266 by March 2013.

It now says that that it will reduce its store base to 200 by March 2015.

The news came as the babywear retailer revealed a 6.2% drop in like-for-like sales in the UK in the year to the end of March. For the fourth quarter, UK like-for-like sales were down 8.2%.

The company said it had closed 62 stores in the UK in the past year and would close another 111 stores by March 2015.

The group, which also runs the Early Learning Centre, said the 200 profitable outlets it was focusing on were made up of 95 out-of-town stores and 105 High Street stores.