French Connection to launch Dutch and German stores as it eyes growth

The fashion retailer is taking over a former franchise store in Amsterdam to give it its first company owned store in the Netherlands, while it is opening a store in Berlin, which will help to boost its German wholesale sales, said French Connection chief executive Stephen Marks.

He said: “There’s so many places to go to. There’s an opportunity for our first stores in France and we still don’t have a partner in South Korea, that’s a big place.”

French Connection reduced its half-year pre-tax loss from £6.1m to £3.9m as underlying like-for-likes rose 6.0% or 1.1% on a reported basis.

Marks said French Connection would be back in the black next year and he was keen to concentrate on growth again.

“We’re a wonderful brand that has been around for a long time and has a long future. We need to get back to profitability,” he said.

The retailer is eyeing further travel stores following the positive reception to its pop-up store in Old Street station that it opened at the beginning of the month. Marks said it is looking at a “few other” transport locations.

French Connection is in the process of offloading loss-making stores. It has so far disposed of seven of the 15 unprofitable stores it wants to get rid of.