Abercrombie and Fitch Clothing

ABERCROMBIE BARGAINS FOR A REBOUND Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael S. Jeffries is doing something he has long vowed to avoid: He's putting his products on sale. While most of his retail peers slashed prices late last year, Jeffries held fast, citing the "dreadful long-term effects" of entering a discount war that would tarnish a brand he has spent 17 years building into a paragon of preppy coolness. That strategy has contributed to crippling sales and earnings declines as price-conscious teens have sought bargains elsewhere. Same-store sales plunged 22% in the third quarter, the eighth consecutive period of decline for the New Albany (Ohio) ... Read Full Story

Preppy clothing seller Abercrombie & Fitch Co.'s third-quarter profit fell 39 percent as sales continued to be weak and the company worked to close its higher-priced Reuhl line, the company said Friday. Abercrombie & Fitch has seen sales slump and lost market share to lower-priced competitors such as Aeropostale Inc. It has kept prices high and kept investing internationally amid the recession. Results came in better than expected, and shares rose 4 percent in premarket trading to $38.05. Profit for the three months ending Oct. 31 fell to $38.8 million, or 44 cents per share, from $63.9 million, or 72 cents per share last ... Read Full Story

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Abercrombie & Fitch <ANF.N> posted a lower quarterly profit on Friday, as a prolonged sales slump at the company's stores could not offset cost cuts. The retailer of young men and women's clothing and operator of chains such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister said third-quarter net income fell to $38.8 million, or 44 cents per share, from $63.9 million, or 72 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the company earned 30 cents per share. Net sales fell 15 percent to $765.4 million as sales at stores open at least a year fell 22 percent. (Reporting by Martinne ... Read Full Story

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. said Thursday that sales in stores open at least a year sank 15 percent in September, slightly worse than analysts predicted. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a drop of 14.7 percent in the four-week period ending Oct. 31. The metric is considered a key retail performance indicator because it measures growth from existing stores rather than newly opened ones. At its Abercrombie & Fitch stores, sales in locations open at least a year fell 8 percent last month, beating analysts' expectation for a decline of 10.1 percent. At the children's chain abercrombie, sales in locations open a year declined ... Read Full Story

A federal lawsuit filed against clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch alleges that the manager at an Oklahoma store refused to hire a 17-year-old Muslim girl because she wore a head scarf. Attorneys for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Tulsa. According to the suit, Samantha Elauf applied for a sales position at the Abercrombie Kids store in the Woodland Hills Mall in Tulsa in June 2008. The teen, who wears a hijab, claims the manager told her the head scarf violates the store's "Look Policy." A company spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit but ... Read Full Story