Mothercare goes into administration – what you need to know

After intense speculation about the future of the baby goods retailer, it was confirmed on Tuesday evening that the UK arm of the business, which has 79 stores, had called in administrators. The Mothercare parent company will continue trading as a global operation. 

For now, the UK stores and website are holding closing down sales, but it's not clear how long this will be for, so bear this in mind if you're thinking of ordering online. Shopping in a store means you can take the items away with you, whereas if you order online there will be a period of uncertainty while you wait for the items to be delivered.

Over the past year, 55 UK Mothercare stores have closed down.  

This story has the latest info as of Friday morning, but we'll continue to update it. Also see our Administration Help guide.

Spend your gift cards now – if you can

Once a company goes into administration, gift cards and gift vouchers can lose their value.

We asked Mothercare's administrators if gift vouchers and gift cards were still being accepted and, as of Friday morning, they told us they were.

Try to spend yours ASAP as it's not clear if this could change, and how long stores will remain open for. 

You won't be able to return items

The administrators told us on Friday morning that returns are no longer being accepted. We're checking if there's the option of exchanging items instead, and will update this story when we hear back. In the meantime there's no harm in asking in store. 

What about staff pensions?

On Tuesday, reports began circulating that Mothercare was looking to move the pension schemes for its UK business across to its profitable parent group.

According to the Press Association, the company is understood to be finalising a deal to do so to preserve benefits for its scheme members.

A deal would stop the funds being placed into the UK Pension Protection Fund, as if the pension schemes entered this industry-funded support system, it could mean significant cuts to future retirement benefits.

We'll be following this story and will update it as more information becomes available. Additional reporting by the Press Association.