Mothercare’s change of strategic focus - Updated

Mothercare announced a fall in full year profits this morning, along with some of it’s key plans for the next year or so. This BBC article provides some details which will be of interest to A Level Business students looking for real life examples of a number of key concepts.

There is plenty for students to get their teeth in to here, in particular:

* retrenchment in the face of an economic downturn and increasing competition
* more emphasis on developing overseas markets
* a focus on on-line business and wholesale business

This could be a case study for students to add to their notes for BUSS4 Section B.

Update:

Thanks to Mark Carter at Northampton School for Girls who posted a comment with further details on this item, detailed below.

There is also an article in the Guardian on this which has a bit more detail (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/18/mothercare-to-close-one-in-three-uk-stores?INTCMP=SRCH)

The subject of reducing High Street presence can also be seen in the recent appointment of Mary Portas as the new tsar to try to revitalise UK town centres (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13423537). Coupled with the recent report from Ernst and Young’s Item Club (comments in BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13408506) about a decade of difficult trading for the retail sector this can provide students with a much broader picture and lots of material for Section B essays for Unit 4. In particular the changing strategies of some companies and the continuing effects of macro economic factors. See also Robert Peston’s Blog: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/13409997