Fashion chain French Connection has said that a difficult retail environment led to a “disappointing” first half, despite a wide-ranging turnaround plan. This marks the chain’s fifth year of losses, as a poor performance in the chain’s wholesale division wiped out modest growth in retail sales. The chain closed five under-performing stores, dropping group sales by 8.7% and leading to a pre-tax loss of £7.9 million – the same as in the first half of last year.
Commenting on the results, Stephen Marks, chairman and chief executive said: "Although the overall performance for the first half has been disappointing, the retail result has been particularly pleasing when compared to last year in what has been a difficult retail environment. Performance in wholesale and licensing has been more challenging but we have started to see an improvement recently and expect to see a recovery in the second half.
“There is still much work to do in the rest of the year to move the business forward significantly but we believe the team we have in place and momentum we are seeing will help us to achieve this. As ever, the overall result will be dependent on the Christmas trading period but the second half of the year has started well."
