Abercrombie raises its ambitions as well as its price

After a bout poor industrial relations and an uproar regarding their saucy quarterly publication the College-Kid/Preppy brand has been facing an uphill battle with sales throughout 2004. Now its has set its targets to restore growth in the US and even is considering opportunities overseas.

In their US stores the retailer is introducing its new high end (and higher price) Ezra Fitch line selling jeans for between $118 to $148. The Ohio based company is also planning to start “a fourth concept”: another chain to join Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister and ‘little’ abercrombie. It will be geared to an older group, perhaps 25 to 35 and aimed somewhere ‘between Banana Republic and Prada’. Four “test” locations open in August.

The third area of opportunity is rumored to lie overseas. New York PSFKers think this is a no-brainer. They always are amazed when their European hipster friends visit Manhattan only to spend a vast amount (of time and money) in the city’s only Abercrombie & Fitch store down in Seaport instead of the cooler downtown boutiques. Whilst in the US the brand may well be the domain of college kids, in London and elsewhere in Europe every hipster seems to want to wear a mock-faded Abercromie logo across their chest.

Indianapolis Star Article