Abercrombie will shut down another 60 stores this year

At the presentation of its latest quarterly results, American fashion company Abercrombie & Fitch has indicated it will shut down about sixty stores this year. For each of those, the rental agreement will end this year anyway.

Strong fourth quarter growth

Despite its news, the company did present decent fourth quarter results: both Abercrombie & Fitch and affiliate chain Hollister managed like-for-like growth, 5 and 11 % respectively. It is the first time in four years that the Abercrombie & Fitch brand managed a like-for-like turnover growth. Its overall 9 % like-for-like turnover growth also exceeds expectations.

The growth is mainly thanks to a continued surge in the United States, where the company achieved a 11 % fourth quarter growth. Its international activities advanced 5 % and that helped create a 15 % overall turnover increase to 1.19 billion dollars (960 million euro). The additional week included in the fiscal quarter and positive exchange rates were also partially to thank for the strong growth. Net profit grew from 48.8 to 74.2 million dollars (60 million euro).

Small profit growth in 2017

For its full year, turnover grew 5 % to 3.49 billion dollars (2.8 billion euro) and net profit nearly doubled from 4 to 7.1 million dollar (5.7 million euro).

Abercrombie & Fitch already shut down 39 stores in 2017, mainly in the United States and forecast another sixty store closures in 2018. It will however open another 21 stores as well.