Crisis for 'tacky' FCUK
French Connection was once an apparently unstoppable force at the cutting edge of high street fashion - but today it was in crisis after a dramatic profits warning.
The company said it expected profits to be " significantly below expectations" after its winter clothing range failed to excite customers.
It follows a statement in August which revealed " disappointing" UK summer sales.
The company has been forced to revamp its spring range in a bid to reverse the slump. The profits warning caps a bad year for French Connection, infamous for its "fcuk" logo.
In June it emerged founder Stephen Marks, 58, with a fortune of nearly ?200 million, had been forced to finance a divorce from his wife of 10 years, Alisa, by selling ?40 million of his shares in the company at ?4.30 each. The share price has fallen to ?2.48 today.
A few weeks after he sold his shares, Drapers Record attacked the "fcuk" brand as "tired and tacky", declaring that "everyone is really fed up with seeing 'fcuk'" after seven years of its T-shirt slogans.
The Advertising Standards Authority received 27 complaints immediately after the campaign launch in 1997, while US stores Macys and Bloomingdales briefly banned products bearing the slogan.
Mr Justice Rattee called it "tasteless and obnoxious" in a court case in 1999.
In July the Advertising Standards Authority ordered the company to have its posters vetted for two years after it upheld a complaint about "offensive" language on them.
The brand launched a series of baffling adverts over the autumn which did not mention the company's name.
Mr Marks made a statement to counter rumours the "fcuk" label was to be dropped.
In its latest statement to the City, the fashion chain said it anticipated full-year profits to come in 15 per cent down on the previous year after an 18 per cent fall in like-for-like sales in the UK and continental Europe in the three months since 1 August. Analysts had hoped for full-year profits of around ?44 million but the group now expects profits to come in at around ?32 million.
- French Connection became a success story by cashing in on the notoriety of the "fcuk" slogan, writes David Hayes. But it turned away from being a trend-aware fashion brand to a clothing line centred on casualwear, jeans and logoed sweatshirts and t-shirts - a look that some might say was a "one-trick pony" bound to have a limited life span.
