Value Investing News

1. Have sales increased or decreased versus last month?

2. Is the weak housing market and economy hurting sales?

3. Are you launching new major sales in the next few weeks?

4. Is you store hiring? For what positions?

5. Who is your biggest competition?

 

●       40% of Abercrombie stores believe business has decreased in past month. 67% of Hollister stores believe business has decreased and 60% of Abercrombie Kids.

●       93% of respondents at Hollister and Abercrombie Kids thoughts the economy and weak housing market was hurting sales. 80% believed this at Abercrombie stores.

●       70% of Abercrombie stores reported launching sales soon. Roughly 50% of Hollister and Abercrobmie Kids reported major sales soon.

●       Roughly 2/3 of Abercrombie, Hollister and Abercrombie Kids locations are not hiring currently suggesting some lack of significant new demand for products.

●       American Eagle (AEO) is seen as the top competitor by roughly 1/3 of all respondents except Abercrombie Kids, where store reps see Gap Kids as the top competition.

Conclusion of Channel Check:  It looks to us like the core Abercrombie stores are performing better in the past month, but less well than many other retailers we cover where the positive response rates have been higher. The Hollister and Abercrombie kids segments of the business look weak overall and significantly weaker than the retail peer group based on our survey tracking. Sales activity at core Abercrombie stores look high at 70%.

For more information, please contact Jason Katz at 415.867.0959 jason@thechannelcheckers.com