French Connection: Saying au revoir to Lakeside?

FASHION chain French Connection has put up the For Sale sign outside 14 of its high-profile UK shops including its store at Lakeside shopping centre.

The brand, once famous for its FCUK branded T-shirts, has been struggling in recent years with City analysts and fashion gurus saying it has lost its way reports the Evening Standard.

Retailers generally have been cutting back on the number of shops as rents rise and sales fall. Many retailers have begun to concentrate on fewer, but larger, stores. French Connection has 71 shops in the UK and Ireland and 46 concessions in the UK and Europe. It is sounding out interest in the leases of the 14 stores and will only close the shops if another retailer takes on its lease.

But it has fared better in emerging markets and plans 12 shops in China and 15 in India.

Chief executive and chairman Stephen Marks is conducting a review of the business following the “most difficult winter season I have seen in all the years I have been in business”. Its UK and European retail business made a loss of £8.2 million in the year to January 31, with profits having plunged 32% to £5 million.