High street fashion chain French Connection (FC) saw its profits shrink by over two-thirds during a "very demanding" 2006.
A poor reception to its spring and summer fashion range drove the fall in pre-tax profits from £12.2 million in the year ending January 31st 2006 to just £4 million a year later.
Turnover fell slightly in the same period from £246.3 million to £241.3 million, while basic earnings per share amounted to just 0.1 pence – a fall from last year's 10.2 pence.
FC chairman and chief executive Stephen Marks sought to thank his employees for remaining "enthusiastic and motivated throughout a very demanding year".
He said that they were aware of changes being made to improve the company's business and that sales had got off to a promising start in 2007.
"The financial results for the last year are very disappointing, however we believe that there is good evidence to indicate that we are at the start of a new phase in our business cycle," he explained.
"While there remains much to achieve, the new financial year has started with good growth in our UK retail stores and we believe we are now in a position to build momentum on this encouraging start to the year."
Despite Mr Marks' optimism FC shares fell by 2.47 per cent during early morning trading.
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