(Filed Under Financial and General Interest News). Abercrombie & Fitch, Co. reported net sales of $998 million for this year's fourth quarter, a 19 percent decrease from last year's fourth quarter net sales of $1.229 billion.
Net sales at their Abercrombie & Fitch stores were $404.4 million, a decrease of 23 percent. Abercrombie net sales were $120.1 million, a decrease of 30 percent, and Hollister & Co's were $449.6 million, a decrease of 25 percent. RUEL's were $17.1 million, a decrease of 25 percent. Since they opened their first Gilly Hick's intimate apparel store in January 2008, they did not yet have fourth quarter comparisons to report.
"The fourth quarter proved to be a catastrophe for the retail industry; a nightmare that included unprecedented promotional activity by other retailers in the malls and consumers who continued to show reluctance to spend, especially for premium brands," Mike Jeffries, the company's chief executive officer and chairman of the board, said. "Our comparable store sales decrease was lower than we had projected, our earnings per diluted share, exclusing the effect of one-time items, exceeded our guidance and we maintained the aspirational nature of all our brands."
The company reported that they anticipate that a difficult selling environment will continue in 2009.
Abercrombie & Fitch, Co. owns the Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie, Hollister, RUEL, and Gilly Hicks brands and stores. As of February 2nd, they operated 1,035 stores in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
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