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LONDON (Alliance News) - French Connection Group PLC on Tuesday reported a wider pretax loss in its recently-ended financial year following a weak first half, and said it has appointed ASOS PLC's Lee Williams as finance director.
The high street fashion retailer said its pretax loss in the year ended January 31 widened to GBP3.5 million from GBP1.6 million, as revenue fell to GBP164.2 million from GBP178.5 million. Retail revenue declined to GB92.4 million from GBP103.3 million, while wholesale revenue slipped to GBP71.8 million from GBP75.2 million.
French Connection said revenue was hit by a reduction in its retail store portfolio, with 13 stores closed during the year, while like-for-like sales were also poor.
The first half was particularly disappointing, the retailer said, although there was a "significant improvement" in the second half, when the UK/Europe retail division saw a return to growth with sales up 6.0% during the full-price sales period. This was not enough to offset the poorer reduced sales period in the first half, however, and still pushed overall sales in the region down by 6.4% in the full year.
French Connection added that it has achieved a stronger performance in the first six weeks of the new financial year.
"The reaction to this year's collections has been strong so far showing that we are on track. We are early in the year and have a considerable amount of work to do to take the group back to profitability although I believe that the actions we have taken to date will go a long way to taking us there," Chairman and Chief Executive Stephen Marks said in a statement.
French Connection also announced it has appointed Lee Williams as group finance director, with effect from April 4.
Williams is currently director of finance at online fashion retailer ASOS, where he has worked for the past 15 months. Helen Ashton is the chief financial officer of ASOS.
Prior to ASOS, Williams spent the majority of the earlier part of his career at supermarket chain Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC and DIY retailer Kingfisher PLC, in various senior finance roles.
In addition, French Connection has appointed Christos Angelides as an independent non-executive director, with immediate effect. Angelides has spent the majority of his career at clothing and homewares retailer Next PLC, with the last 14 years as group product director.
"I am delighted that Lee is joining us. He has extensive experience of working in senior finance roles at a number of retail businesses, but latterly with a specific focus in the digital environment. We are also pleased that Christos is joining the French Connection board. He brings substantial experience in fashion retailing in both the UK and USA and the board will benefit from his knowledge and insight," Marks said.
Shares in French Connection were trading down 8.8% at 40.15 pence on Tuesday morning. ASOS shares were down 1.0% at 3,135.00p.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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