The baby products retailer Mothercare says problems with its new warehouse will hit its profits for the full year.

The company issued the warning as it announced a 20% rise in half year profits to �4.8m.

The future problems worried investors, and Mothercare's share price fell 6% to close at 215p.

But because of problems encountered in moving to a new warehouse, Mothercare said it would be taking an exceptional charge of �4.1m.

Disappointment

"We are... disappointed that the problems at the warehouse will take longer to resolve than initially anticipated," said the company's chief executive Chris Martin.

"The impact of this mean pre-exceptional profits this year will be lower than expectations."

Apart from the problems at the new warehouse the company said sales had been going well during the first six months of the year.

Sales rose 6.8% to �226.2m compared to the same period last year.

"We are encouraged that the fundamentals of the business are responding to the recovery programme," Mr Martin said.

Internet joy

"Successes include our new clothing range, the strength of our home, travel and toy product areas, and the performance of our Mothercare World stores."

But the warehouse problem has hit recent sales figures.

During the four weeks since mid-October sales in the UK fell 4.3%, while overall sales dropped 7.6% as the company tried to get stock into its UK stores.

But there was better news from Mothercare Direct - which covers the company's website and catalogue business.

Catalogue and internet sales grew 87.9% to �7.3m, and the company said the website is getting up to 80,000 hits a week.