Another one bites the dust

Millennium Cargo

It’s only a couple of months since Thomas Cook went bust leaving 21,000 people without a job.

But it seems that they’re not the only high street name that’s going under.

This last week we said goodbye to huge mother and baby brand, Mothercare, followed by their competitor Mamas and Papas just a few days later!

While it’s sad to see any business go bust, it’s especially unnerving when you see a business as long-standing and well-known as Mothercare bite the dust.

But take a look at their numbers for last year and you can see why.

In their financial year ending March 2019 they totted up losses of an epic £83.7 million. That’s got to be tough to recover from.

So why are we losing these big high-street names who used to dominate their markets?

Innovation.

The world is changing faster than they can keep up.

As new technology emerges and the younger generations become their target market, it’s innovate or die.

Now, Mothercare aren’t the first to fail to keep up, despite being a house-hold name Blockbuster suffered a similar fate thanks to the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime. They did try to release their own online streaming platform but it was too late. They went bankrupt in 2010 with debts of nearly $1 billion, while Netflix has gone on to make a whopping $1.2 billion per year in net profit!

To add insult to injury Netflix originally offered to sell to Blockbuster for $50 million back in the early noughties but were laughed out of the door with Blockbuster claiming the business had no legs…

So what’s my point?

My point is that it doesn’t matter how big your business is, how long you’ve been running or what industry you’re in, you’ve got to innovate if you want to stand the test of time.

You’ve got to be hot on your numbers so you can see if things start to go south and you’ve got to react FAST. Come up with new ideas, move with the times and stay ahead of the game.

So what are you doing to prepare for the future? 

Chadd Blunt
Millennium Cargo