Mothers Work Reports Sales for November 2008

Mothers Work, Inc. , the world's leading maternity apparel retailer, today announced that net sales for the month of November 2008 decreased 5.3% to $44.0 million from $46.5 million reported for the month of November 2007, and announced that its comparable store sales increased 0.6% for the month of November 2008. This 0.6% increase in comparable store sales for November is in line with the Company's guidance range for November comparable store sales of between flat to up 2%. The decrease in sales versus last year for the month of November 2008 resulted primarily from a decrease in Sears(R) leased department sales, due to the closure of all of the Company's remaining leased departments within Sears stores during the month of June 2008, partially offset by increased comparable store sales.



Comparable store sales for November 2008 increased 0.6% (based on 975 locations) versus flat comparable store sales (a change of 0.0% based on 1,438 locations) for November 2007. Mothers Work reports sales on a calendar month basis, rather than on a "4-5-4 retail fiscal calendar" where each fiscal week and fiscal month starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday. Thus, for each calendar month, there is a "days adjustment calendar shift" which may help or hurt reported calendar month sales and comparable store sales due to different days of the week typically contributing more sales than other days of the week. For November 2008, there was one more Saturday and Sunday and one less Thursday and Friday compared to November 2007, which the Company estimates favorably impacted its reported comparable store sales for November 2008 by approximately 2 to 3 percentage points. The comparable store sales of 0.0% for November 2007 was favorably impacted by approximately 1 percentage point due to having five Fridays in November 2007 compared to four Fridays in November 2006. For December 2008, the Company estimates its reported comparable store sales will be unfavorably impacted by approximately 4 percentage points due to having one less Saturday and Sunday and one more Tuesday and Wednesday compared to December 2007.



During November 2008, the Company opened five stores, including one multi-brand store, and closed three stores, including one store closing related to a multi-brand store opening. As of the end of November 2008, the Company operates 754 stores, 283 leased department locations and 1,037 total retail locations, compared to 776 stores, 793 leased department locations and 1,569 total retail locations operated at the end of November 2007. The decrease in leased department locations at the end of November 2008 versus the end of November 2007 predominantly reflects the closure of the leased departments within Sears stores as compared to the 499 Sears leased departments operated by the Company at the end of November 2007.



Ed Krell, Chief Executive Officer of Mothers Work, noted, "We are pleased to report another month of positive comparable store sales in November, despite the continued weak overall economic and retail environment. Although our November comparable store sales were favorably impacted by a days adjustment calendar shift, we also believe our November comparable store sales were hurt somewhat by a weather-driven shift in demand from November into October this year compared to last year, as a result of the much more favorable Fall-like weather throughout the United States this October compared to last October's very unseasonably warm weather. For October 2008, our comparable store sales increased 6.0% on a reported basis, and increased approximately 5.0% after adjusting for the days adjustment calendar shift.



"Looking forward, we feel very good about our product lines and we are cautiously optimistic about our future sales trend. However, we recognize that we are faced with a very weak overall economic and retail environment and, thus, we continue to manage our inventory and expenditures very tightly. Also, we feel strongly that the strategic restructuring and streamlining of our merchandise brands and store nameplates that we announced on July 1, 2008, will help improve our long-term profitability by simplifying our brand structure, reducing our cost structure, and leveraging both our renowned A Pea in the Pod luxury brand and our growing multi-brand Destination Maternity store brand. We are focused on developing great maternity product under each of our brands and on improving our sales and profitability performance, while maintaining our keen focus on generating cash flow."



Mothers Work is the world's largest designer and retailer of maternity apparel, using its custom TrendTrack(TM) merchandise analysis and planning system as well as its quick response replenishment process to "give the customer what she wants, when she wants it." As of November 30, 2008, Mothers Work operates 1,037 maternity locations, including 754 stores, predominantly under the tradenames Motherhood Maternity(R), A Pea in the Pod(R), Mimi Maternity(R), and Destination Maternity(R), and sells on the web through its DestinationMaternity.com and brand-specific websites.

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