Mothercare Ireland, a franchise of Mothercare UK and Ireland‘s largest mother and child retailer, has exited examinership.
In Irish law, examinership is a rescue process whereby the protection of the Court is obtained to assist the survival of a company. It allows a business to restructure with the approval of the High Court.
Mothercare Ireland sought examinership in July as part of an attempt to restructure the business and secure the long-term future of the company on the back reportedly unsustainable rents.
The retailer said that the restructure had led to a 30% rent reduction across the group‘s portfolio, reported The Irish Times.
Mothercare Ireland owner David Ward established the group in 1992 after running the BHS, Habitat and Mothercare businesses in Ireland for the Storehouse Group. He will also to invest €750,000 into the business as part of the plan.
“It‘s a great sense of relief and we‘re just looking to the future now,” said Store Operations Director Jonathan Ward.
“I think we‘ve got a cost base that the business can grow on again now. Everything we were doing was about managing costs effectively and the one cost we couldn‘t manage was our rents so we‘ve been able to reduce that and along with the fresh investment in the business we‘ll be able to grow the business.
Ward added that the group would now be looking at store refurbishments and improvements across its entire operation, to include faster checkouts, and the introduction of e-receipts and in-store tablets
Mothercare Ireland said it will continue to trade at 15 stores nationwide but confirmed the closure of three shops
