French Connection shrinks losses by 30 per cent: Losses down to £5.7million

The company reported pre-tax losses of £5.7million for the six months to July 31, compared with a loss of £7.9million a year earlier, thanks to higher licensing revenues, a “reduced loss” in its retail division and better performance from its wholesale business.

The retailer said those improvements were achieved during a “traditionally low point in the year” for profitability and despite challenging conditions in the UK, Europe and the US. 

“We have definitely seen momentum build in the first half of the new financial year with improvements across all the divisions despite difficult trading conditions.

With full price sales in retail up during the early part of the second half, combined with the strong winter 2017 order books in wholesale and very strong reaction to the spring 2018 collection, I am confident that we will see a good performance during the rest of the year,” the chairman and chief executive Stephen Marks said.

“We have been working with the goal of returning the group to profitability as soon as possible and, while there is still much to do, I believe that we have made significant steps to achieve that in the near future,” he added.

In a separate statement, French Connection said it has appointed Sarah Curran and Robin Piggott as independent non-executive directors.

Curran co-founded and was the CEO for 10 years of My-Wardrobe.com, which went into administration in 2013, and more recently was managing director of Very Exclusive, the luxury division of Shop Direct Group.