French Connection

How ethical is French Connection? 

French Connection is a low-ranking brand in The Good Shopping Guide’s Ethical Ratings.

French Connection (sometimes branded as FCUK or fcuk) is a UK-based global fashion brand owned by French Connection Group PLC. The brand receives a passable, adequate Good Shopping Guide score in our Ethical Fashion Retailers Ratings Table. Although French Connection has not yet met our Ethical Benchmark, we hope to see the brand make progress in the future.

The Good Shopping Guide would have extra confidence in this brand if it submitted itself to apply for Ethical Accreditation, whereby we would make further detailed assessments and recommendations for ethical improvement.

In what areas does French Connection perform poorly? 

Despite French Connection’s progress, there is still room for improvement. The brand was marked down to very low scores under our Environment and People categories. Its ‘Sustainability’ page contains very few, non-specific targets, and no mention of progress from a defined baseline, so French Connection scores poorly on its Environmental Report.

French Connection is also not a part of the Ethical Trading Initiative. This scheme ensures that work has been “freely chosen”, that child labour is not used, that the right to “collective bargaining” is respected, and that other employees’ welfare is safeguarded in other ways too. This fashion brand should consider joining this scheme in order to protect workers in its supply chain. French Connection received a “not good enough” grade in the Good on You ratings, which evaluate a company’s behaviour towards People, the Environment, and Animals. French Connection obtained a rating of 2/5 for its treatment of people and animals and a score of 1/5 for its policies regarding the environment.

In what areas does French Connection perform well? 

French Connection performs well for our criteria that address Organic accreditation and assesses a brand’s history of Political Donations.

You can find a few verified-organic products on the French Connection site (including this shirt, made with 100% organic cotton, certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard.) The Soil Association (another organic accreditation board) has an article on why it’s so important to grow cotton organically. (Non-organic cotton has been called the ‘world’s dirtiest crop’.)

In our research, we also did not find any incidents of French Connection donating to political parties or causes, and therefore received a good score for this category.

Additionally, French Connection does supply various Modern Slavery, Gender Pay Gap, Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility policies on its website, these reports are vague and could do with some more detail about the brand’s goals, progress and roadmap if it is to score highly in our criteria for the Environment, Animals and People. Publishing a comprehensive Code of Conduct allows consumers to hold brands to account and track progress.

How can French Connection brand improve its Ethical Rating?

The Good Shopping Guide score results from multiple ethical criteria in relation to French Connection. To reach our minimum ethical benchmark and qualify for Ethical Accreditation, French Connection has some issues to resolve, including its Code of Conduct, Environmental Report and policies concerning labour.