Baby products retailer Mothercare has warned that profits will fall short of expectations after troubles at its main warehouse disrupted Christmas sales.

"Significant problems" at a main store in Daventry caused Mothercare problems in getting products into High Street outlets.

Mothercare said sales in the 13 weeks to 11 January were down 4% on a like-for-like basis, and 5.9% overall.

Investors signalled their disapproval by sending Mothercare's shares down nearly 9% to 205p in morning trade.

Warehouse worries

Last November, Mothercare warned that problems at its main warehouse were taking longer than expected to sort out, and that it would take a �4.1m charge to sort out the trouble.

But the latest trading update said the warehouse problems led to supply problems over the crucial Christmas period.

Toy sales were particularly badly affected with sales down "sharply" on the previous year.

Mothercare said the disappointing performance over the festive period meant full year profits would fall below market expectations and were "unlikely to be in excess of �4.0m".

Despite the gloomy update, chief executive Chris Martin raised hopes of revival.

"The warehouse problems have been a major setback for the business, but we can now move forward once again and get Mothercare's recovery programme back on track," he said.