Abercrombie & Fitch to close several flagship stores
Abercrombie & Fitch is to close its flagship stores in London, Munich and Paris by the end of January.
All three closures will be well ahead of the stores’ natural lease expirations.
In addition, the brand will be shuttering its Brussels, Madrid and Fukuoka stores in early January when the leases expire. This will leave the business with eight operating flagships at its year-end compared to 15 at the beginning of the year.
The move is part of the retailer’s plans to move away from large shops in tourist-dependent locations and instead focus on smaller, local stores. It has also recently closed it Dusseldorf flagship which was also an early exit.
Abercrombie & Fitch has also announced that its net sales decreased by 5% to $820 million in its third quarter due to the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, online sales climbed by 43% to $382 million in the period with growth seen every month.
Commenting on the performance, Fran Horowitz, Abercrombie & Fitch chief executive, said: “Reflecting your ongoing hard work and perseverance, we delivered our best third quarter operating income in eight years. Results were fuelled by 43% year-over-year digital sales growth and sequential sales improvements in our global store base.
“Updated product and marketing resonated with existing and new customers across brands and regions. Combined with a focused inventory management strategy, we expanded gross profit rate significantly while continuing to tightly manage expenses, leading to operating margin improvements over last year.”
