Leamington Mamas & Papas store closure among six to shut its doors across the UK

The closure was part of the company's realignment of its store portfolio as more customers choose to shop online as well as in-store.

Certain assets of Mamas & Papas (Retail) Limited were sold this morning (Friday November 8) as part of the latest phase in its profitability improvement programme. The assets were sold to other companies within the Mamas & Papas Group through a pre-pack administration conducted by business advisory firm Deloitte.

As a result six unprofitable stores have now closed.

The impacted loss-making stores, which employed 73 staff, are located at the following areas: Aberdeen, Preston, Milton Keynes, Lincoln, Leamington and Fareham.

The remaining stores continue to trade as normal, as do the growing digital, wholesale and concessions businesses.

All customer orders, including any outstanding orders placed with the closed stores, are completely unaffected and will be delivered on time and without disruption.

The company also announced that it will be reviewing and simplifying operations at its head office in Huddersfield, which could lead to 54 additional redundancies.

However, no decisions will be made in this regard until affected staff have been consulted.

Riccardo Cincotta, Executive Chairman of Mamas & Papas, said: “These actions are always difficult but they are also necessary in a challenging market to ensure Mamas & Papas achieves its considerable future potential. We remain fully focused on maintaining our position as the UK’s most popular nursery brand.

“We will continue to review our store portfolio in the light of customers’ changing behaviour and we remain fully committed to an omni-channel offering that reflects their evolving needs.

“Our digital performance is tracking ahead of expectation, our wholesale distribution in the UK and Internationally continues to grow and our in-store Personal Shopping experience remains highly valued by our customers.”

Marco Capello, Managing Partner at Bluegem Capital, which acquired Mamas & Papas in 2014, added: “As long-term owners of the business, we remain fully committed to supporting Mamas & Papas on its growth journey. The business now has a solid platform from which to achieve this ambition, so we can look forward to the future with confidence.”