NEW ALBANY, Ohio, Dec. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Abercrombie
& Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) today announced that Fran Horowitz, President of its Hollister brand,
has been promoted to President & Chief Merchandising Officer of
the Company, effective immediately. In this newly created
position, Horowitz will have responsibility for all of the
Company's brands, reporting to Arthur C.
Martinez, Executive Chairman.
"Abercrombie & Fitch Co. continues to make encouraging
progress executing on its strategy to provide compelling,
customer-focused shopping experiences based on clearly defined
brand positions. We are pleased with our performance for the
quarter to date and are on track to deliver continued sequential
improvement in comparable sales and achieve the profit expectations
we had coming into the quarter," said Arthur Martinez, Executive Chairman of
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. "Fran's merchandising skills and her
exceptional leadership, which has inspired associates to focus all
their efforts on an intense understanding and commitment to our
customers, has ignited a turnaround at our Hollister brand. This
promotion provides Fran the opportunity to play an even greater
role in our future success as we focus on building shareholder
value by positioning each of our brands for sustainable
growth."
As President & Chief Merchandising Officer, Horowitz will
have responsibility for all customer-facing activities across the
company's brands. This includes, merchandising, design,
planning, inventory management, marketing and stores. At the
appropriate time, the company expects to name new presidents for
each of its brands, who will report to Horowitz.
Christos Angelides, who served as
Abercrombie & Fitch brand president since October 2014, has left the Company.
Horowitz, 51, joined Abercrombie & Fitch as Hollister Brand President in October 2014 from Ann Taylor Loft, where she also
held the role of Brand
President. For nearly eight years, she worked at
Express, Inc., rising to the position of Executive Vice President
of Women's Merchandising and Design. Prior to Express,
Horowitz spent 13 years at Bloomingdales in various merchandising
roles, and prior to that she worked in buying positions at Bergdorf
Goodman, Bonwit Teller and Saks Fifth Avenue. She is a
graduate of Lafayette College and
received her MBA from Fordham
University.
About Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is a leading global specialty
retailer of high-quality, casual apparel for Men, Women and kids
with an active, youthful lifestyle under its Abercrombie &
Fitch, abercrombie kids and Hollister Co. brands. At the end
of the third quarter, the Company operated 790 stores in
the United States and 175 stores
across Canada, Europe, Asia
and the Middle East. The Company
also operates e-commerce websites at www.Abercrombie.com,
www.abercrombiekids.com and www.HollisterCo.com.
Media Contact:
Michael Scheiner
Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
(614) 283-6192
Public_Relations@abercrombie.com
Investor Contact:
Brian Logan
Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
(614) 283-6877
Investor_Relations@abercrombie.com
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION
REFORM ACT OF 1995
A&F cautions that any forward-looking statements (as such term
is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995)
contained in this Press Release or made by management or
spokespeople of A&F involve risks and uncertainties and are
subject to change based on various important factors, many of which
may be beyond the company's control. Words such as "estimate,"
"project," "plan," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," and
similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements. Except
as may be required by applicable law, we assume no obligation to
publicly update or revise our forward-looking statements. The
following factors, in addition to those included in the disclosure
under the heading "FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND RISK FACTORS" in
"ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS" of A&F's Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the fiscal year ended January 31,
2015, in some cases have affected, and in the future could
affect, the company's financial performance and could cause actual
results for fiscal 2015 and beyond to differ materially from those
expressed or implied in any of the forward-looking statements
included in this Press Release or otherwise made by management:
changes in global economic and financial conditions, and the
resulting impact on consumer confidence and consumer spending, as
well as other changes in consumer discretionary spending habits,
could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of
operations and liquidity; the inability to manage our inventory
commensurate with customer demand and changing fashion trends could
adversely impact our sales levels and profitability; fluctuations
in the cost, availability and quality of raw materials, labor and
transportation, could cause manufacturing delays and increase our
costs; we are currently involved in a selection process for a new
Chief Executive Officer and if this selection process is delayed
our business could be negatively impacted; failure to realize the
anticipated benefits of our recent transition to a brand-based
organizational model could have a negative impact on our business;
a significant component of our growth strategy is international
expansion, which requires significant capital investment, the
success of which is dependent on a number of factors that could
delay or prevent the profitability of our international operations;
direct-to-consumer sales channels are a focus of our growth
strategy, and the failure to successfully develop our position in
these channels could have an adverse impact on our results of
operations; our inability to successfully implement our strategic
plans, including our restructuring efforts, could have a negative
impact on our growth and profitability; fluctuations in foreign
currency exchange rates could adversely impact our financial
condition and results of operations; our business could suffer if
our information technology systems are disrupted or cease to
operate effectively; we may be exposed to risks and costs
associated with cyber-attacks, credit card fraud and identity theft
that would cause us to incur unexpected expenses and loss of
revenues; our market share may be negatively impacted by increasing
competition and pricing pressures from companies with brands or
merchandise competitive with ours; our ability to attract customers
to our stores depends, in part, on the success of the shopping
malls or area attractions in which most of our stores are located;
our failure to protect our reputation could have a material adverse
effect on our brands; we rely on the experience and skills of our
senior executive officers, the loss of whom could have a material
adverse effect on our business; we depend upon independent third
parties for the manufacture and delivery of all our merchandise, a
disruption of which could result in lost sales and could increase
our costs; our reliance on two distribution centers domestically
and third-party distribution centers internationally makes us
susceptible to disruptions or adverse conditions affecting our
distribution centers; we may be exposed to liabilities under the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and any determination that we
violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act could have a material
adverse effect on our business; in a number of our European stores,
associates are represented by workers' councils and unions, whose
demands could adversely affect our profitability or operating
standards for our brands; our facilities, systems and stores, as
well as the facilities and systems of our vendors and
manufacturers, are vulnerable to natural disasters, pandemic
disease and other unexpected events, any of which could result in
an interruption to our business and adversely affect our operating
results; our litigation and regulatory compliance exposure could
have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and
results of operations; our inability or failure to adequately
protect our trademarks could have a negative impact on our brand
image and limit our ability to penetrate new markets; fluctuations
in our tax obligations and effective tax rate may result in
volatility in our operating results; extreme weather conditions and
the seasonal nature of our business may cause net sales to
fluctuate and negatively impact our results of operations; the
impact of war or acts of terrorism could have a material adverse
effect on our operating results and financial condition; changes in
and compliance with the regulatory or compliance landscape could
adversely affect our business and results of operations; our
Asset-Based Revolving Credit Agreement and our Term Loan Agreement
include restrictive covenants that limit our flexibility in
operating our business; and, compliance with changing regulations
and standards for accounting, corporate governance and public
disclosure could adversely affect our business, results of
operations and reported financial results.
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SOURCE Abercrombie & Fitch Co.