For French Connection, a U-Turn

英國品牌FCUK繼去年秋天宣佈，計畫將關閉21家日本以及北歐的店之後，又在最近計畫將關閉其在美國的店並且出售集團所屬品牌Nicole Farhi。時尚產業的快速及多變，總是不停的上演著品牌的興衰演繹。分析師認為，FCUK所面臨的危機並非僅限於潮流的轉變，而是fast fashion產業的快速崛起，使許多品牌需面臨挑戰，需要在定價策略以及品牌定位上重新做調整，並且檢視其設計及品質是否符合其實際售價。

LONDON—The British French Connection Group PLC, known for its sassy and borderline-profane marketing, plans to close most of its U.S. stores and sell its Nicole Farhi brand, serving up a cautionary tale for Zeitgeist-chasing fashion retailers that fail to adjust to a rapidly changing market.

The moves are part of an array of changes that include a new ad campaign, and they were announced as the retailer reported its second year of losses. For the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, the company had a net loss of £24.9 million ($37.8 million) on revenue of £214.3 million.

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Associated Press

Women carry shopping bags as they walk past a French Connection UK store in San Francisco in December.

Last fall, French Connection unveiled plans to close all 21 of its Japanese stores and its underperforming stores in Northern Europe to refocus on the U.K. and Ireland. On Monday, it said it would reduce its U.S. stores from 23 to about six.

The retailer also said it had agreed to sell its upscale Nicole Farhi brand to the Los Angeles, Calif.-based private-equity firm OpenGate Capital LLC for up to £5 million, depending on the Farhi label's performance.

French Connection has been around for almost 40 years, but it rose to prominence in 1997 after it started selling T-shirts with catchy, off-color phrases that used the transposed swearword FCUK.

The cheeky campaign catapulted the fashion group to world renown, paving the way for a rollout of international stores. But it also built a brand whose frivolous image and comparatively high prices were ill-prepared to cope with the shift to more austere shopping patterns during the recession.

French Connection Group

French Connection's new ads have a more sophisticated, upscale focus.

"At some point we became a little complacent," says Roy Naismith, French Connection's finance director. "With the FCUK branding itself, it was time to move on."

In 2006, after a sudden decline in retail sales, French Connection did move away. In place of its FCUK mantra, the company unveiled a provocative campaign featuring two women fighting viciously and then kissing. But this time the company's strategy of fanning controversy fell flat.

So now, in addition to curtailing its international operations,French Connection has undertaken the most far-reaching revamp of its brand in more than a decade. Its new campaign, unveiled last month and designed by Publicis Groupe SA's advertising agency Fallon, features short, black-and-white movies. They play on film noir to communicate an upscale image featuring, for example, two Parisian-style sophisticates wearing off-the-shoulder cocktail dresses and classic trenches.

In the fickle and fast-moving fashion world, brands fall out of favor all the time. Italy's Benneton SpA never reapproached its popularity in the 1980s. U.S. retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co., long the go-to choice of suburban teens, is also closing stores and repositioning itself.

Meanwhile, French Connection is bristling at suggestions that its fashion moment may have passed for good. "We've been in business for almost 40 years," Mr. Naismith says. "Yes, we've seen some ups and downs, but we are a fixture on the High Street," as Britons call their main shopping thoroughfares.

But analysts say French Connection's problems go beyond changing trends. The emergence of more low-priced competitors in the British fashion market has forced midlevel retailers like French Connection to justify their higher prices–and some critics say its designs haven't lived up to their price tags.

"You can't have markedly higher prices than your competitors without a substantial brand and proven, discernible quality to justify them," says Bryan Roberts, global research director at the consultancy Planet Retail.

Going forward, French Connection will focus on its 123 stores and concessions in the U.K. and Ireland. Already, the company says, its women's wear sales have begun to recover from the recession. That part of the business recorded a 4.8% rise in same-store sales for the financial year ended Jan. 31. But in menswear, Mr. Naismith says, the turnaround hasn't yet begun.

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