French Connection breaks the retail slump, reduces losses

French Connection has today announced that it is close to a return to profit, after annual losses fell dramatically.

The fashion retailer said in its financial year ending 31 January 2018, trading performance improved with group revenues up 0.5% to £154.0m. During the same period in 2017, they were down 6.7% to £153.2m.

Underlying operating losses were reduced to £0.6m – an improvement of £3.1m on 2017.

Wholesale revenue has also increased by 8.6% from UK/Europe and North America.

The group took the decision to close 11 ‘non-contributing’ locations during the year but opened a new concept store in Manchester.

Stephen Marks, chairman and chief executive, said: “We have made considerable progress across the group over the last year and I enter the new financial year with renewed confidence off the back of that success. Our goal has been to return the group to profitability and I believe we are very close to achieving that aim, given the momentum that we are currently seeing within the business.

“While it is clear that the retail market in which we are operating in the UK is unlikely to improve in the near future, we have clear visibility on the benefits we will obtain from the ongoing portfolio rationalisation.”