French Connection had a brutal 6 months
The upmarket High Street fashion retailer put out a profit warning in April but on Monday it released its half-year results, showing just how bad the damage is.
Losses jumped to £7.9 million ($5 million) in the six months to the end of July, up from £3.9 million ($2.5 million) in the same period last year. Revenues also tanked 9.8% to £75.8 million ($48.7 million).
Sales at stores open this time last year fell 10.7% and wholesale revenues dropped by 2.7%. Basically everything is down.
The company blamed the performance of its Spring collection, which failed to sell. CEO and chairman Stephen Marks blames "a difficult period for the High Street generally."
French Connection has been struggling for the last few years to get back to profitability and was close to reaching its goal - in March it revealed that it has narrowed losses to just £800,000 ($514,500) and 2015 was set to be the year it got back to black.
Marks admits in today's update that the performance "delayed our return to profitability." French Connection is closing stores to try and cut costs, with 6 already shut this year. It originally planned to shut 7 this year, but the total has raised to a possible 10.