Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Let's get to that point, because shares with Abercromi and
Speaker 2: Fisher are just absolutely staring today, the retailer raising its
Speaker 2: full year outlook after blowing pass first quarter sales estimates.
Speaker 2: The retailer now expects net growth to rise around ten
Speaker 2: percent for the year. That's up from previous estimates of
Speaker 2: four to six percent. Joining us now is Frand Horr.
Speaker 2: What's the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch. Friend, It's great
Speaker 2: to get this perspective from you. What drove your killer year?
Speaker 2: I mean, you've just been delivering quarter after quarter. Can
Speaker 2: you pinpoint one or two things that have really helped
Speaker 2: drive it for you?
Speaker 1: Sure?
Speaker 3: So to your point, coming off of a defining year
Speaker 3: for us in twenty twenty three and then taking that
Speaker 3: momentum right into the first quarter and having a record quarter,
Speaker 3: just an incredibly exciting day to hear today today here
Speaker 3: on campus.
Speaker 1: What drove that are a couple of things.
Speaker 3: I think most importantly, our formula of staying close to
Speaker 3: the customer and really understanding what their lifestyle is and
Speaker 3: what they're looking for is key to our success. US
Speaker 3: that companied with a lean inventory and this chase model
Speaker 3: that we have created that helps us make sure that
Speaker 3: we're listening, we're testing, we're learning, and we're reacting to
Speaker 3: the business in real time.
Speaker 1: It's really helping us drive these results.
Speaker 2: We had a great line in our Bloomberg piece that said,
Speaker 2: you extended your bounce back from the teen fashion graveyard,
Speaker 2: and I thought that was a really good image and
Speaker 2: analysts responding to your quarter or asking the question, how
Speaker 2: long can you keep up this extraordinarily strong pace of growth,
Speaker 2: what do you think?
Speaker 3: Well, the exciting thing is that we've actually separated the brands.
Speaker 3: If you go back through the history, Hollister is truly
Speaker 3: the iconic global teen brand, and we've been able to
Speaker 3: really age up Abercrombie.
Speaker 1: We've expanded the addressable market.
Speaker 3: I mean, the consumer now starts with Abercrombie when they're
Speaker 3: in their early twenties, they stay with us well through
Speaker 3: their forties. And additionally, we've just completely grown all the categories,
Speaker 3: no longer being a jeans and T shirt company, but
Speaker 3: caring for all their different lifestyles. It's truly a lifestyle brand.
Speaker 3: Is trying to explain today they come to us for
Speaker 3: all sorts of occasions from their wedding parties to their
Speaker 3: bachelorette parties, to where to.
Speaker 1: Work, to going out on the weekends.
Speaker 3: So the addressable market as well as the range of
Speaker 3: what we offer is much greater than what it used
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 4: Friend, I want to talk a little bit about pricing
Speaker 4: and pricing power, if you will. I know the discounting
Speaker 4: has always been an issue for retailers. You've held the
Speaker 4: line at least for the last couple of years on
Speaker 4: that here kind of limiting those discounts in a way
Speaker 4: that certainly helped the bottom line. Do you have confidence
Speaker 4: that you can continue to limit those discounts.
Speaker 3: Jeremy, I'm so proud of the progress that we've been
Speaker 3: able to make. If you think about the aur that
Speaker 3: we have been able to grow since twenty nineteen and
Speaker 3: both brands, double digit is done by twofold.
Speaker 1: One is through reducing our promotions.
Speaker 3: Right this discount to ticket for us used to be
Speaker 3: thirty forty to fifty percent. Today it makes a customer
Speaker 3: happy at fifteen or twenty percent. As well as making
Speaker 3: sure that the inventory is lean, and that's really the
Speaker 3: other key piece to its making sure that they buy
Speaker 3: it when they see it, it may not be there
Speaker 3: the next time that they come into the store, So
Speaker 3: our expectation every season is to come in with basically
Speaker 3: I guess I would call it flat promotions to the
Speaker 3: prior year, and then the customer really tells us, you
Speaker 3: know what their appetite is, and we can flex our
Speaker 3: muscle every week and make those decisions.
Speaker 4: As you sort of try it. Though you have to,
Speaker 4: of course, stay ahead of the trend to a certain
Speaker 4: extent in order to sort of make sure you have
Speaker 4: the right inventory for those folks when they come into
Speaker 4: the store. Has that gotten more complicated or have you
Speaker 4: found ways to make that process a little bit more
Speaker 4: efficient or at least a little bit more reliable.
Speaker 1: Great question.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would tell you that with both the digital
Speaker 3: business as well as the in store business, we can
Speaker 3: test our product pretty efficiently today. And then the key
Speaker 3: is being ready with your supply chain and making sure
Speaker 3: that it's agile enough that you have your fabrics ready
Speaker 3: and that you can get the product in on a
Speaker 3: very quick basis.
Speaker 2: When you take a look frand at the overall consumer appetite,
Speaker 2: we keep seeing lots of different signals that the consumer
Speaker 2: is slowing down. Are you noticing any of that. And
Speaker 2: if you had to predict out the next twelve months,
Speaker 2: how would you describe your consumer?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Alex, I guess my answer to that would be
Speaker 3: if you look at the results for twenty three and
Speaker 3: you look at the results for the first quarter, clearly
Speaker 3: that's not what we're seeing from our consumer. I think
Speaker 3: the key is if you offer the consumer the right product,
Speaker 3: the right fashion component at the right value, they are responding.
Speaker 3: And the customers in any economic time have a choice
Speaker 3: on where to shop, and they are choosing us, and
Speaker 3: that is true in Hollister as well.
Speaker 2: Are you noticing how they're paying it all? Like? I
Speaker 2: know you do the buy now, pay later stuff, Like
Speaker 2: are we seeing any more sort of on credit? Are
Speaker 2: there delinquencies on that or delay payment or buy now
Speaker 2: pay later any other read through I can get.
Speaker 3: No, there's been no change to any of the payment
Speaker 3: That's really amazing.
Speaker 4: And what about expansion going off forward? Frand I mean,
Speaker 4: what are you at around like seven hundred and fifty stores?
Speaker 4: Are you planning to increase account?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: We have an opportunity both bastically as well as internationally
Speaker 3: to continue to grow our store base. In twenty twenty three,
Speaker 3: we opened up sixty five new experiences around the world.
Speaker 3: We'll open up about one hundred and twenty five this year.
Speaker 3: You know, the opportunity for us is to gain back
Speaker 3: a lot of share internationally. We've been on quite a
Speaker 3: chair in North America for the past few years and
Speaker 3: just starting to see our playbook you know, exported internationally
Speaker 3: and really starting to work there as well.
Speaker 4: Where internationally, because I mean, this is still a company
Speaker 4: that it's the lion's share of its sales here in
Speaker 4: the US and North America. Where internationally are the best opportunities.
Speaker 3: I would tell you that in the Maya region, the
Speaker 3: UK and Germany are two biggest countries outside of the US.
Speaker 1: That is what we're currently focused.
Speaker 3: We've built a team in London that's helping us localize
Speaker 3: our assortments and localize our promotions and make sure that
Speaker 3: we deliver our product appropriately.
Speaker 1: From a calendar and a customer wearing perspective.
Speaker 4: All right, friend, well, we really appreciate you taking time
Speaker 4: to be with us today. Our Frand Horwitz there, the
Speaker 4: CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch, coming off of its first
Speaker 4: quarter earnings report here and some pretty decent numbers twenty
Speaker 4: one percent comp sales growth ALEX and of course the
Speaker 4: guidance that they gave going forward also pleasing investors. You
Speaker 4: see that in the share price of twenty four percent
Speaker 4: on the day