Carpetright and Mothercare shares plummet as fears about their future grow

CARPETRIGHT'S shares have fallen by 11 per cent, and Mothercare's shares have fallen by 12 per cent because of fears about their futures.

This follows a recent high street slump affecting Toys R Us, Prezzo, Jamie's Italian, Bargain Booze and burger chain Byron.

High street stores have been suffering from falling consumer demand, more people choosing to shop online rather than instore and higher overheads.

Both Mothercare and Carpetright are having to shut loss making stores to keep their head above water and avoid administration.

Mothercare is  shutting nearly half of it's 152 UK stores as part of a ongoing transformation.

Similarly, Carpetright is in talks with its creditors to sell shops to pay for the rising cost of rent on it's stores.

Carpetright's 409 UK shops have been under performing which has made it's rental costs hard to bear.

In April last year the floor covering company expected to make £13 million by the end of the financial year.

Now Carpetright are predicting that they will make a loss of £4 million this year.

In just a year the companies shares have lost 73 per cent of their value.

Poor trading has meant that Mothercare has had to go into talks with it's banks to avoid breaching the terms of it's loans.

The poor trading is  largely due to consumers moving to shopping online, and Mothercare not being able to keep up with the online market as well as relying on discounted items to grab customers.

The company is now predicting losses from £0.8 million to £16 million for this year.

This comes no surprise as a whole host of British high street retailers are struggling to stay afloat.

A quarter of the UK's biggest retailers could struggle to pay their debt payments this year if interest rates rise.

Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant chain is currently in £71.5 million pounds worth of debt.

Without a cash injection high street off licence chains Bargain Booze and Wine Rack could go under.

The chains owned by drinks giant Conviviality have 700 stores in the UK and employs 2600 people.

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