Abercrombie & Fitch has gone through many business revamps and reinventions in its 132-year history. But it's only now enjoying what's arguably its most successful incarnation ever, with spiking sales and resurgent share prices. The company was founded in 1892 as a retailer specializing in camping, hunting, and other outdoor gear, before morphing into a department store and finally setting its current course as a clothes retailer.
Today, Abercrombie & Fitch is reaping the fruits of a total rebranding of the company, its fashions, and reputation, and celebrating that with record sales driven by younger shoppers flocking to it. How does that translate in results? This month the company reported sales for the quarter that ended in May of just over $1 billion--a 22 percent increase over the same period last year--and profits of $113.9 million.
It forecasts growth to remain strong for the full year with a 10 percent increase over 2023, which was already an impressive improvement on 2022. With much of that momentum being fueled by younger Gen Z and Millennial shoppers snatching up both its Abercrombie and Hollister brands, Wall Street traders who had long ignored what was consider a formerly powerful but fallen company have been snatching up shares. That has driven Abercrombie & Fitch stock prices up more than 400 percent, from $32 to $180 a share over the past year.
All that marks a dramatic turnaround for the brand. Alternatively famous and decried in the 1990s and early 2000s fo.