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30 Nov 2015 07:00
30 November 2015
French Connection Group plc
Trading update
French Connection Group plc ("French Connection", "the Group") today announces a trading update for the 16 week period ended 21st November 2015.
Trading performance
Sales of the French Connection Winter 15 collection have continued to be strong during the period after the promising start to the season, highlighted at the time of the interim results announcement in September. The LFL for UK/Europe retail for the period was 0.2% (2014: -6.1%) and within that the full price LFL remained around 6.0%. In addition the gross margin achieved during the period has increased over last year by 1.5% as the full price sales mix has increased, coupled with improved input margins.
All other areas of the business are also trading in line with expectations.
Group cash, during a cyclical low period of the year, was £6.1m (2014: £7.6m).
Licensing
As part of the continued development of the licensing business for the Group we have ongoing discussions in a number of product categories and significantly have recently extended our very successful furniture licence with DFS for a further period of 5 years.
Retail Store Portfolio
We continue to look for opportunities to rationalise our store portfolio and now expect to close a further 7 non-contributing stores during the second half of the year. Further, due to the redevelopment of the building, we will vacate our Regent Street, London store at the end of March 2016, at which time we will receive a compensation payment of £2.4million, while also removing the ongoing trading losses of the store.
Stephen Marks, Chairman and Chief Executive said:
"I am pleased to report that the performance of the Group has improved considerably compared to the first half of the year, particularly in the UK/Europe retail stores and while we still have the all-important Christmas period to come, we expect the results for the full year to be in line with market expectations."
Enquiries:
Neil Williams French Connection +44(0)20 7036 7063
Tom Buchanan Media Enquiries +44(0)7974 982366
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