Abercrombie & Fitch to shutter Hong Kong, Seoul flagships

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Nov 22, 2016

Abercrombie & Fitch announced on Monday that it will close its stores in Seoul and Hong Kong by early 2017 as part of the company’s ongoing strategic review. The company announced the store closures with its third quarter results.

 The Abercrombie & Fitch Seoul flagship store is expected to close in January 2017, and the company exercised a lease kick-out option for its A&F Hong Kong store on Pedder Street. Abercrombie expects to incur a lease termination charge of $16 million during the fourth quarter.
 
Abercrombie is the latest company to close its Hong Kong flagship location joining the likes of Forever 21 and Coach that had locations in Causeway Bay and Central, respectively.

Also in the fourth quarter, Abercrombie expects to close 35 stores in the US and open 7 new global stores, 5 of which will be in China and the remaining 2 will be in the US.
 
The company reported a drop in quarterly sales for the third quarter, which was bigger than expected. Company shares decreased 13.17% to $14.70 on Friday, and its net sales fell 6.5% to $821.73 million missing the analysts expected $830.6 million. Net sales fell for the 15th consecutive quarter.
 
Comparable sales decreased 14% and sales at established A&F stores fell 6%.