Business Insider/Mary Hanbury
Abercrombie wants to be cool again.
- At Abercrombie & Fitch's investor day on Wednesday, the company's CEO Fran Horowitz assured Wall Street that the brand has changed and outlined its strategy to grow into a $5 billion business.
- The company, which also owns Hollister and Abercrombie Kids, has been working hard to execute a turnaround by investing in its stores, closing unprofitable locations, improving its product assortment, and working on its marketing strategy.
- This is paying off - in the third quarter of 2017 the parent company reported positive sales growth for the first time in six years. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the Abercrombie brand alone had its own comeback, reporting an impressive 5% increase in same-store sales.
- We visited one of the Abercrombie stores to see how much it has changed.
Abercrombie's CEO Fran Horowitz had a strong message for Wall Street at the company's investor day this week: "we are not the Abercrombie & Fitch that you once knew," she said, according to The Street.
The retailer has been working hard to shake off its '90s reputation of having oversexualized ad campaigns and dimly lit stores where the air is thick with the smell of cologne.
"Our stores were notoriously dark and very intimidating," Horowitz told The Street on Wednesday.
Horowitz, formerly chief merchandising officer who took over as CEO in February 2017, has executed a turnaround for the company by investing in stores, closing unprofitable locations, improving product assortment, and working on its marketing strategy.
And it seems to be paying off. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the brand reported an impressive 5% increase in same-store sales numbers. In the previous quarter, the parent company, which also owns the Hollister brand and Abercrombie Kids, reported positive same-store sales growth for the first time in six years.
Its stores are at the forefront of its turnaround effort. We visited one of its Manhattan locations to see how much it has changed:
