Mothercare is one of the retail businesses which doesn’t make the wider headlines that often. Possibly that’s because its story has remained largely the same since Ben Gordon came in from Disney and undertook what has been a very successful turnaround.

Mothercare is one of the retail businesses which doesn’t make the wider headlines that often. Possibly that’s because its story has remained largely the same since Ben Gordon came in from Disney and undertook what has been a very successful turnaround.

The key to Gordon’s success in the past has been to focus on international growth, and alongside Tesco, there can be no other UK retailer which has spread its wings as successfully as Mothercare. It has expanded into all sorts of odd places, the latest being Panama.

The problem that’s now become brutally clear is that while all this attention has been paid to international, the home business is really struggling. The baby products market is one of those most exposed to supermarlet competition. They offer mums low prices - handy as babies have an annoying habit of growing the whole time - and also convenience, which is not to be sniffed at when you’re wheeling a pram around.

So it’s no surprise Mothercare has decided to take advantage of lease expiries to get out of a quarter of its UK stores. It sees its future in the UK as largely out-of-town and online, and while that is bad news for lots of high streets and for Mary Portas as she sets out on her mission to revive our town centres, it’s the right thing for Mothercare to do. The rise in the share price following yesterday’s announcement reflects this.

Mothercare could arguably have helped itself a bit more by investing more in the in-town stores to give them a bit of pizazz and excitement, and to better compete on price, but in truth this story is more about the market than Mothercare itself.

It’s sad but true that specialist non-food retailers are going to need a really good reason to stay on the high street. The occupational costs simply don’t stack up, and I don’t hear of too many landlords accepting that they need to become more realistic in their expectations in order to fill space.

Mothercare may be the first big retailer to embark on a big space disposal programme of its own volition, but it’s not going to be the last.

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