French Connection’s formerly controversial branding is no longer “aspirational”. This is the argument used by activist investor at the British fashion retailer to urge the company to ditch the logo.

American fund Gatemore is the disgruntled investor in question, with an eight percent stake in the fashion label, Gatemore Capital Management sent a letter to French Connection criticising its 'disappointing' performance since the financial crisis.

Gatemore asks French Connection to ditch ‘FCUK’ logo

Gatemore also said French Connection had fallen behind rivals such as Ted Baker and SuperGroup, reported ‘Proactive Investors’. Besides, the company has been urged to ditch the controversial FCUK branding.

In the missive, the investment firm also called for founder Stephen Marks to split his roles as chairman and chief executive as this “wasn’t working”. French Connection said: 'While we agree the performance of the group needs to improve, we disagree with many of the assertions.'

Stephen Marks, French Connection chairman and chief executive, has said before that the time that there was a “considerable amount of work to do to take the group back to profitability”.

In this vein, it´s good to recall that French Connection shares have fallen 70 percent in five years and 85 percent in just under a decade.

French Connection currently has a market capitalisation of 38.7 million pounds, based on Friday’s closing share price.

Angelides, independent non-executive director, purchased 25,000 shares in the company at a price of 37 percent per share, taking his stake to 100,000 shares, representing 0.1 percent of the company's issued ordinary share capital, reported ‘This is Money’.

Image:French Connection Web