{"id":160985,"date":"2019-03-12T07:47:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T07:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/"},"modified":"2021-08-12T13:55:14","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T13:55:14","slug":"french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"French Connection returns to underlying profitability but still has \"a way to go\""},"content":{"rendered":"

French Connection has finally returned to underlying profitability after seven years of of losses;<\/strong> the mid-market fashion chain made an underlying operating profit of \u00a30.1m in the 12 months to 31 January 2019.<\/p>\n

Chairman and CEO Stephen Marks said that the business had a \"way to go\" before the business achieved \"an appropriate level of profitability\"<\/strong>\u00a0but the move into the black at underlying operating level marked a breakthrough for the business which recorded a loss of -\u00a32.1m for the same period in the prior year.<\/p>\n

The \u00a30.1m profit, however, excludes profit\/loss on store disposals and closures, provisions for bad debts and onerous leases and other professional fees; when these were taken into account, the business reported an operating loss of \u00a39.3m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The results were achieved against a difficult trading backdrop which was evident in a -6.8% drop in like-for-like sales.<\/strong> Total group revenue edged up 0.2% to \u00a3135.3m while total retail revenue was down -10.6% to \u00a358.4m.<\/strong> Wholesale performed strongly, up 10.3% to \u00a376.9m.<\/p>\n

The company said it was disappointed to report that total e-commerce revenue contracted by -3.7% across its websites<\/strong> with e-commerce now representing 21.2% of total sales (up from 19.8%).<\/p>\n

During the period a further 10 non-contributing locations closed,<\/strong> with one new store and one concession opened leaving the chain with 96 operated stores and 195 franchised, licensed and JV stores and concessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am pleased to report that we have achieved our target of returning the Group to underlying profitability this financial year. This is only part of our overall journey, however it represents a significant achievement<\/strong> given the results over recent years.<\/p>\n

\"This has been achieved despite the ongoing difficult retail trading environment in the UK and is the result of the changes we have made in all areas of the business to adapt to the ever evolving markets in which we operate.<\/p>\n

\"While we still have a way to go to return the business to an appropriate level of profitability, I believe that we have made and continue to make significant progress<\/strong>,\" Marks said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":149807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10585,6,10494],"tags":[10090,10686],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrench Connection returns to underlying profitability but still has "a way to go" - TheIndustry.fashion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"French Connection has finally returned to underlying profitability after seven years of of losses; the mid-market fashion chain made an underlying\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"French Connection returns to underlying profitability but still has "a way to go" - TheIndustry.fashion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"French Connection has finally returned to underlying profitability after seven years of of losses; the mid-market fashion chain made an underlying\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TheIndustry.fashion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theindustryfashion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-12T07:47:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-12T13:55:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/FCUK-1-2-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"980\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"653\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauretta Roberts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@theindustryfash\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@theindustryfash\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lauretta Roberts\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lauretta Roberts\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#\/schema\/person\/85b04a16eba8c6cd7a9534c5a4262b89\"},\"headline\":\"French Connection returns to underlying profitability but still has \\\"a way to go\\\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-12T07:47:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-12T13:55:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/\"},\"wordCount\":346,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"French Connection\",\"Stephen Marks\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Finance\",\"News & Insight\",\"Retail & Etail\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/\",\"name\":\"French Connection returns to underlying profitability but still has \\\"a way to go\\\" - TheIndustry.fashion\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-12T07:47:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-12T13:55:14+00:00\",\"description\":\"French Connection has finally returned to underlying profitability after seven years of of losses; the mid-market fashion chain made an underlying\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"French Connection returns to underlying profitability but still has \\\"a way to go\\\"\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/\",\"name\":\"TheIndustry.fashion\",\"description\":\"Fashion news, insights, podcasts and events for professionals from across the fashion sector.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#organization\",\"name\":\"TheIndustry.fashion\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/LOGO.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/LOGO.png\",\"width\":585,\"height\":217,\"caption\":\"TheIndustry.fashion\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theindustryfashion\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theindustryfash\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/theindustryfashion\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/10970016\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#\/schema\/person\/85b04a16eba8c6cd7a9534c5a4262b89\",\"name\":\"Lauretta Roberts\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c0dfd15bd9969aa1cbd9cdc088372e7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c0dfd15bd9969aa1cbd9cdc088372e7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lauretta Roberts\"},\"description\":\"Lauretta Roberts is the CEO, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of The.Industry.fashion She is also the former director of brand & propositions of trend forecaster WGSN and a former editor of Drapers magazine.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.theindustrylondon.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"French Connection returns to underlying profitability but still has \"a way to go\" - TheIndustry.fashion","description":"French Connection has finally returned to underlying profitability after seven years of of losses; the mid-market fashion chain made an underlying","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"French Connection returns to underlying profitability but still has \"a way to go\" - TheIndustry.fashion","og_description":"French Connection has finally returned to underlying profitability after seven years of of losses; the mid-market fashion chain made an underlying","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/","og_site_name":"TheIndustry.fashion","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theindustryfashion\/","article_published_time":"2019-03-12T07:47:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-08-12T13:55:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":980,"height":653,"url":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/FCUK-1-2-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lauretta Roberts","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@theindustryfash","twitter_site":"@theindustryfash","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lauretta Roberts","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/"},"author":{"name":"Lauretta Roberts","@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#\/schema\/person\/85b04a16eba8c6cd7a9534c5a4262b89"},"headline":"French Connection returns to underlying profitability but still has \"a way to go\"","datePublished":"2019-03-12T07:47:32+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-12T13:55:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/"},"wordCount":346,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#organization"},"keywords":["French Connection","Stephen Marks"],"articleSection":["Finance","News & Insight","Retail & Etail"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2019","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/","name":"French Connection returns to underlying profitability but still has \"a way to go\" - TheIndustry.fashion","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-03-12T07:47:32+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-12T13:55:14+00:00","description":"French Connection has finally returned to underlying profitability after seven years of of losses; the mid-market fashion chain made an underlying","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/french-connection-returns-to-underlying-profitability-but-still-has-a-way-to-go\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"French Connection returns to underlying profitability but still has \"a way to go\""}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/","name":"TheIndustry.fashion","description":"Fashion news, insights, podcasts and events for professionals from across the fashion sector.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#organization","name":"TheIndustry.fashion","url":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/LOGO.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/LOGO.png","width":585,"height":217,"caption":"TheIndustry.fashion"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theindustryfashion\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/theindustryfash","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/theindustryfashion\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/10970016\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#\/schema\/person\/85b04a16eba8c6cd7a9534c5a4262b89","name":"Lauretta Roberts","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c0dfd15bd9969aa1cbd9cdc088372e7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c0dfd15bd9969aa1cbd9cdc088372e7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lauretta Roberts"},"description":"Lauretta Roberts is the CEO, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of The.Industry.fashion She is also the former director of brand & propositions of trend forecaster WGSN and a former editor of Drapers magazine.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.theindustrylondon.com"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}