The sales of the Hollister clothing line from Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) is finally showing signs of improvement. The teen apparel retailer has said that the company expects its comparable sales to pick up in the second half of the year. The company’s shares rose to 3.6% to$20.35 in the premarket. The comparable sales of Abercrombie fell lower than expected in the first quarter of this year.
The company has said that it is planning to lower the prices for its Hollister Clothing line in Europe. The range includes skirts, apparel, and T-shirts. Abercrombie has reported a rise in the demand for its clothing line in most of the Asian and European countries in the first quarter. The company gets 37% revenue from the international market and expects to improve its overall profit margin.
Decline in the Comparable Sales
The rise of the dollar to 1.81% against several currencies in between February and April had lowered the sales of Abercrombie by 6% in the first quarter of 2015. The net sales of the company dipped down to $709.4 million from the last year’s $822.4 million last year. The net fall in the sales was around 14%. The company’s comparable sales at Hollister fell by 6%. However, it was not as much as was expected by the analysts who had predicted a decline of around 8.9%. .
The Consensus Metrix has reported that the total comparable sales of Abercrombie declined to 8%, a bit less than 8.7% as predicted by the analysts. The total loss of the company widened to 91 cents/ per share or $63.2% from the 32 cents/ per share or $23.7 million. It shows that the recent efforts by the company to improve its sales are slowly showing positive results.
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) was a very much popular preppy clothing brand until some time. Since the introduction of trendier clothing lineup, the company has been struggling to revive its declining sales as the customers have shown back to its logo centric apparel.
