Retailer Storehouse today said it was continuing to see "early signs" of improvement at its Mothercare chain of stores with sales ahead for the last four months.

The group, which earlier this year sold its Bhs chain for £200 million to retail entrepreneur Philip Green, said sales in its Mothercare stores grew 4.7 per cent in the 15 weeks to July 15.

Stripping out the effect of store openings or closures, sales at Mothercare were ahead 0.7 per cent, the group said.

Chairman Alan Smith said the "early signs of improved performance reported at the results meeting in May have continued".

Mr Smith, who was giving the update at the group's annual general meeting, also said gross margins in the UK stores had increased by 2.2 per cent.

The update comes two months after Storehouse showed it had fallen deep into the red at the full-year stage after incurring costs of £396 million from selling the Bhs business and restructuring the Mothercare chain.

The one-off costs of the restructuring saw the company report bottom-line pre-tax losses of £389.4 million, against profits of £80.3 million the previous year.

The restructuring had followed Storehouse's plans, announced in November, to separate the Mothercare and Bhs chains into two different businesses in an attempt to boost profits and sales.

That led to the sale in May of Bhs to Philip Green and the restructuring of Mothercare, with the group switching its emphasis from high-street stores to larger Mothercare World formats.

Storehouse is also renaming itself Mothercare and shareholders will today be able to vote on a special resolution to make this change.