...Executive Summary: Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, and Urban Outfitters are considered member of the Family Clothing Stores industry, an industry that was hit hard by the economic crisis. Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle have similar growth models of expansion through new stores and markets and have seen similar growth and loss in revenues over fiscal years 2005 to 2009. ANF and AEO are in direct competition for the teenage consumer market and have launch competing brands, AEO’s Aerie in 2006 and ANF’s Gillyhicks in 2007, during the five year span. Urban Outfitters has a different marketing strategy that involved expanding brands sold within their current stores. They have seen significant growth in both sales and shareholder value over fiscal years 2005 to 2009, even through the economic crisis. Industry Overview: Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, and Urban Outfitters are all a part of the “Family Clothing Stores” industry. This industry was comprised of 92,400 total clothing stores at the beginning of the analysis in 2005, and had estimated sales of $77.2 billion in the United States. The Family Clothing Stores industry consists of specialty stores (22% of the market), discounters (19%), department stores (17%), off-price stores (7%), mail order (6%), outlets (4%), and other stores (7%), with all three of the companies researched included in the specialty stores category. Research and technology are major players in this industry as quick distribution and...
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...ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH OVERVIEW Abercrombie and Fitch Co. (ANF) is a specialty retailer that operates stores selling casual apparel, sportswear apparel, personal care products and accessories for men, women and kids under the Abercrombie and Fitch, Abercrombie, Hollister and RUEHL brands. With a customer base that is primarily under thirty years old, ANF was established in 1892 by David Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch. ANF operates in the US, the UK and Canada and is headquartered I New Albany, Ohio with over 20,000 employees. As a “near to luxury” retailer, ANF operates in an apparel industry which straddles high to low end merchandise. Its’ main competitors include : American Eagle, Aeropostale, Gap and J- Crew. Their focus on capturing a young market has created a rivalry, which forces them to be innovative and creative in delivering fashionable mechandise. As a result, their competitive strategy involves not only marketing their products through stores, but via catalogs and e- commerce activites. SWOT ANALYSIS, ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH A scan of the internal and external environment is essential in any firm’s strategic planning process. A SWOT analysis defines the internal and external environmental issues with which a firm must address in its strategic planning process. This type of analysis specifies the internal and external factors that are favourable and or unfavourable to the firm achieving its business objectives. It guides the firm in matching its resources and other...
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...Investments BUY: ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH Analyst: Steve Bright The Midriff Exposed March 26, 2004 • We recommend ANF as a hold. Our price target of $34.23 is 6% below the current share price. • We believe the stock is fairly valued and should be purchased on dips. We remain cautious on the shares longer-term; we desire continued strong execution from Hollister and await ANF’s new concept store rollout. Source STOCKVAL • ANF continues to build cash and recently announced it will begin to pay a dividend in 04. Though beneficial to shareholders, we prefer to see management reduce prices with the intent to increase foot traffic and potential sales. We believe several competitors have begun to price apparel below that of ANF to increase their ROE. With regard to the dividend payment, we would have preferred for management to use the cash to repurchase shares, although the dividend is likely to appeal to value investors. • We believe ANF will continue to grow due to the overall structure of the industry. As teen spending continues to grow in proportion to the population, we believe there will be consolidation in the specialty retailers to leverage operations and brand recognition. Based upon the cash position of ANF, we expect ANF to be an acquirer of companies. • ANF has demonstrated the ability to successfully execute on its key critical success factors, including inventory management. We believe...
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...Twitter is a website, owned and operated by Twitter Inc., which offers a social networking and microblogging service, enabling its users to send and read messages called tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the user's profile page. Tweets are publicly visible by default; however, senders can restrict message delivery to just their followers. Users may subscribe to other users' tweets—this is known as following and subscribers are known as followers.[8] All users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, compatible external applications (such as for smartphones), or by Short Message Service (SMS) available in certain countries.[9] While the service is free, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees. The website is based in San Francisco, California. Twitter also has servers and offices in San Antonio, Texas; and Boston, Massachusetts. Since its creation in March 2006, and its launch in July 2006, by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained popularity worldwide and is estimated to have 190 million users, generating 65 million tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries per day.[clarification needed][10] It is sometimes described as the "SMS of the Internet".[11] Tween Brands (NYSE: TWB) operates retail stores that sell clothing to "tweens", girls between the ages of 7 and 14. TWB's stores sell clothing, jewelry, backpacks, purses, and other accessories.[1] The Limited Too was TWB's first chain, with 586 stores...
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...Case Study Analysis 1: Aeropostale, Period 2010 – 2012 November 4, 2013 Executive Summary This financial analysis report examines our company Aeropostale and a few of our close competitors within the teen retail industry in order to evaluate company performance and financial health. The 3 year financial analysis covers GAP (GPS), Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF), Ralph Lauren Polo (RL) and Aeropostale from income statements / balance sheets with resultant calculations on the subjects of revenue, gross profit, return on equity, liquidity, financial leverage and market valuation from year 2010 to year 2012. There are many areas that require improvement as financial calculations have revealed negative company health. Improvements must come from the product itself with improved design and marketing. Background With approximately 980 stores throughout the United States and Canada, Aeropostale is a proud with its designing, marketing and retailing of teen casual apparel and accessories. We have been a shopping mall based specialty retailer of casual apparel for young men and women with control over our proprietary brands for sourcing, marketing and selling our own merchandise. As of 2012, media analysts have indicated that Aeropostale stores are smaller in size compared to Gap’s stores, and generate significantly higher revenue per square feet. Moreover, before cotton prices climbed in 2011, Aeropostale locations generated about $150 in EBITDA per square feet compared to...
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...[pic] SWOT Analysis of Hollister Co. By: Jessica Gray, Mehrosh Hasher, Lydia Russo, Rachael Ware, and Desiree Urban October 4, 2009 AA 381 Fashion Buying Introduction: Hollister Co. was launched by Abercrombie & Fitch Company CEO Michael Jeffries in July 2000, and is a lifestyle brand that markets apparel and fragrances reminiscent of the southern California way of life (Palmer, 2009). Hollister Co., whose clothing is known for their signature seagull logo embroideries, has become widely recognizable due to its success in creating a strong brand image (Palmer, 2009). Hollister Co.’s retail stores, featuring only its own private label merchandise, are usually located in malls and generate significant traffic due to its unique atmosphere complete with ultra-dimmed lights and blaring popular music (Palmer, 2009). The brand’s target market consists of both males and females between 14-24 years of age (Palmer, 2009). Hollister Co. is known for the model-like staff it employs, and the sensual advertisements and store décor that accompany them (Palmer, 2009). Their clothing reflects this ideal, running in notoriously small sizes and only consisting of a very limited collection of casual beach-ready graphic t-shirts, jeans, thermals, swimwear, leggings, shorts, and sweatshirts (Palmer, 2009). Though Hollister Co. has recently been suffering large net losses, it has ranked first place for the Teen’s Top Clothing Brand for four consecutive seasons since 2007, and...
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...TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION AEROPOSTALE, INC. VS. ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH CO. PERFORMANCE DURING RECESSION AEROPOSTALE EXPANDING E-COMMERCE SALES BACK TO SCHOOL SEASON INCREASES IN COMMODITY PRICES ANALYSIS PROFITABILITY GROSS PROFIT MARGIN NET PROFIT MARGIN INVENTORY TURNOVER RETURN ON CAPITAL EMPLOYED (ROCE) LIQUIDITY CURRENT RATIO ACID TEST OR QUICK RATIO DEBTOR DAYS CREDITOR DAYS SOLVENCY GEARING VALUATION EARNINGS PER SHARE (EPS) CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1: FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS ON PROFITABILITY TABLE 2: FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS ON LIQUIDITY TABLE 3: FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS ON SOLVENCY TABLE 4: FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS ON VALUATION 0364693/2 INTRODUCTION Aeropostale, Inc. (ARO) which is frequently referred to as Aeropostale by their consumers is a U.S. based clothing retailer that sells casual clothing with approximately 900 plus stores located in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Arab Emirates. ARO stores are primarily based in shopping malls and sells fashion apparel inclusive of printed tees and polos, shirts, jeans, footwear, swimwear, underwear, fleece and accessories. ARO’s teen brand has been extremely successful and as a result of this, they were driven to launch a new brand, P.S. from Aeropostale which sells children’s clothing. AEROPOSTALE, INC. VS. ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH CO. To sell their own brand of apparel and accessories, ARO targets a young demographic...
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...Abercrombie & Fitch Marketing Assignment Executive Summary Established in 1892, Abercrombie & Fitch marketing strategy has always been to target those between the ages of 18 and 22. A&F’s gross sales have been $539 million in 2008; however sales have dropped by 5% from the previous year due to the recession. In order for sales to improve our marketing consulting team has developed an internal analysis, which identifies, assesses, predicts, and accommodates the human resources, technology, finances and operations that A&F possesses. The internal analysis explains how these possessions, which have helped the organization until present time, can be used to help increase sales during this recession. Furthermore, the report analyzes A&F externally showing what kind role each factor, such as price and quality, plays in A&F and its competitors. The external analysis describes the political, economic, social, and technological factors in A&F’s environment and how each of these factors can be used for the benefit of the company during this recession. To further clarify A&F’s positioning, a perceptual map has been developed in which A&F shown as a high priced and high quality retail organization. It can be noted at this point that all of A&F’s competitors are willing to promote its employees and give discounts while A&F chooses not to, and yet they have the highest drop in sales growth. Moreover, the report’s most important part being the...
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...{draw:frame} Abercrombie and Fitch Case Study 4/21/2010 Executive Summary: Abercrombieand Fitch was Founded as a High Quality sporting goods store in 1982 by David Abercrombie. Abercrombie Co opened its first store in Manhattan, New York with the intention of providing high quality equipment to an elite segment of the market. Throughout the years, Abercrombie and Fitch Co has proven itself to be able to adapt to the constant changing retail market and has slowly evolved in the retail giant we are familiar with today. Abercrombie and Fitch currently employ a focused differentiation strategy where they target customers ages 12-25. Instead of using conventional methods of strengthening their brand through advertising and a squeaky clean image, A&F instead takes full advantage of controversy and word of mouth advertizing in order to gain their customer base. It is through A&F’s unorthodox methods that they have been able to establish themselves as a highly desirable, high quality apparel retailer and due to these factors they are able to charge a premium price for their products. A&F’s current strategies have helped them to not only establish themselves in the United States, but they are now poised to expand into the global market. With the recent opening of flagship locations in Tokyo, London, Milan, A&F now has a solid foothold to tap into the Western European and Asian Markets. With the potential in these foreign markets, A&F should realize high levels of growth...
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... (Chakrabarty, 2011; Gill, 2007; University of Pennsylvania, 2002) Several financial organizations are working toward International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), which will serve as a global guideline, allowing for comparison of financial reports produced by corporations regardless of where their headquarters are located. (Chakrabarty, 2011) This paper will discuss some of the differences between the accounting practices of two internationally operating retail companies; Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F), with corporate headquarters in the United States, and H&M, with corporate headquarters in Sweden, analyze some aspects of their financial statements, and compare this information. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F), is a retailer of casual apparel for men, women, and children, selling products such as casual sportswear, personal care products, and accessories. Its subsidiaries include Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie kids, Hollister, and Gilly Hicks. (Abercrombie & Fitch, 2012a; Reuters, n.d.) A&F offers online...
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...Module 6 – Financial & Managerial Accounting for MBAs, 2nd edition by Easton, Halsey, McAnally, Hartgraves & Morse Practice Quiz 1. Procter & Gamble (PG) and Colgate-Palmolive (CL) report the following sales and accounts receivable balances ($ millions). Compute the 2005 accounts receivable turnover for both companies. a. b. c. d. PG: PG: PG: PG: 13.56 13.11 13.76 15.31 CL: CL: CL: CL: 8.71 8.35 8.67 9.02 2. Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF) and TJ Maxx (TJX) report the following information in their respective January 2006 10-K reports. Compute the 2006 inventory turnover for each of these two retailers. a. b. c. d. ANF: ANF: ANF: ANF: 3.25 7.67 2.98 2.57 TJX: TJX: TJX: TJX: 5.21 6.79 1.31 5.19 Cambridge Business Publishers, ©2010 Quiz 6-1 Financial & Managerial Accounting for MBAs, 2nd Edition 3. Intel Corporation (INTC) and Texas Instruments (TXN) report the following information. Compute the 2005 PPE turnover for both companies. a. b. c. d. INTC: INTC: INTC: INTC: 2.27 2.17 2.50 2.36 TXN: TXN: TXN: TXN: 3.44 3.21 3.50 3.43 4. General Electric Company reports the following footnote in its 10-K report. The company reports its inventories using the LIFO inventory costing method. Assume GE has a 35% income tax rate. As of the 2005 year-end, how much has GE saved in taxes by choosing LIFO over FIFO method for costing inventory? a. b. c. d. $6,705 million $475 million $3,610 million $244 million Cambridge Business Publishers, ©2010 Quiz 6-2 Financial...
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...Module 4 Analyzing and Interpreting Financial Statements QUESTIONS Q4-1. Return on investment measures profitability in relation to the amount of investment that has been made in the business. A company can always increase dollar profit by increasing the amount of investment (assuming it is a profitable investment). So, dollar profits are not necessarily a meaningful way to look at financial performance. Using return on investment in our analysis, whether as investors or business managers, requires us to focus not only on the income statement, but also on the balance sheet. Q4-2.B ROE is the sum of an operating return (RNOA) and a nonoperating return (the effective use of financial leverage – specifically, leverage multiplied by the spread). Increasing leverage increases ROE as long as the spread is positive. Financial leverage is also related to risk: the risk of potential bankruptcy and the risk of increased variability of profits. Companies must, therefore, balance the positive effects of financial leverage against their potential negative consequences. It is for this reason that we do not witness companies entirely financed with debt. Q4-3. Gross profit margins can decline because 1) the industry has become more competitive, and/or the firm’s products have lost their competitive advantage so that the company has had to reduce prices or is selling fewer units or 2) product costs have increased, or 3) the sales mix has changed from higher margin/slowly turning...
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...------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary 3 2. Company Description 4 2.1. Company Overview: 4 2.2. Vision: 4 2.3. Mission: 5 2.4. Competitive Advantage 5 2.5. Challenges 5 3. Services Overview 6 3.1. Services: 6 3.2. Benefits and Features: 6 4. Marketing Plan 8 4.1. Market Analysis: 8 4.1.1. Market Description 8 4.1.2. Market Size 8 4.1.3. Market Growth: 10 4.1.4. Market Gap: 11 4.1.5. Target Market 11 4.1.6. Regulations: 12 4.1.7. Porters Five Analysis: 13 4.1.8. Competitive Analysis: 15 4.1.9. SWOT Analysis: 18 4.2. Marketing Strategy 21 4.2.1 Value Proposition 21 4.2.2 Branding 21 4.2.3 Marketing Strategies 22 4.2.4 Business Strategy 22 4.3. Marketing Mix: 22 4.3.1 Product Strategy: 22 4.3.2 Pricing Strategy: 23 4.3.3 Place Strategy 24 4.3.4 Promotion Strategy: 24 4.3.5 Marketing Strategy Summary: 28 5. Operational Plan 29 5.1. Personnel Plan 29 5.2. Organizational Hierarchy 30 5.3. Management Strength 31 ------------------------------------------------- List of Tables and figures Table 1: Target Market 11 Table 2: Competitive Analysis 14 Table 3: Personnel Plan 28 Figure 1: Market share of US Apparel Market 2007 9 Figure 2: Growth of Children Clothing Market in US ($ bn) 10 Figure 3: Potential Growth of US Children Clothing Market ($ bn) 10 Figure 4: Value Proposition 20 Figure 5: Organizational Hierarchy...
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...Abstract Using the internet and all that’s available on the web today, an eight week stock simulation was conducted to investigate the effects of different trading strategies on outcome of investments in the stock market. The knowledge and experience received from this project would be helpful for people to become better investors in future real-life investments. 5 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Goals of the Project: The main goal of this project is to learn about the stock market through practice with a short-term and long-term stock market simulation. I will start short-term trading with 10 stocks that I selected over the first few weeks. I have also selected 2 stocks which will I will trade in a long-term method over the next 8-week period. After investing in the selected stocks, I will be able to analyze the simulation and make conclusions based on my performance. I am beginning with $200,000, and then will scope over my profits and losses to understand which methods work best. Starting in Chapter 1, I will explain the history of the stock market and who is involved with it. In the following chapters I will show my results of the simulation and discuss them. I will conclude the simulation in the final chapter, which will cover all results and what I learned during the 8-week period. 1.2 History of the Stock Market: The stock market is a trading place where bonds and stocks can be traded, usually to gain some type of income. Basically, a stock is a piece of...
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...FINANCIAL ANALYSIS NAME: Urban Outfitters, INC EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Urban Outfitters is a clothing store for women and men founder in 1970 by Richard Haynes. Urban Outfitters is a public trade company and have over 400 retail locations. This financial overview will show Urban Outfitters company important segments, financial statement, ratios and analyze of the company’s cash flow. Urban Outfitters two major competitors are Abercrombie and Fitch and J Crew. Urban Outfitters is able to increase their sales every year because they focus of the differential of product, brand prestige and customer loyalty. Over the past five years, Urban Outfitters has experience an increase of sales from $349 million to $1,092 which average grow of 33.43% per year. Urban has out performance their competitor’s sales by near 29% and the industry by 22%. The two main competitors for Urban, ANF has an average of sales growth of 20% and JCG has growth of sales of 5%. As an overall evaluation, URBN’s operating efficiency has increased during this time period due primarily to this: operating costs declined while gross profit increased. Asset turnover decreased slightly which indicates their asset basis generated fewer sales. However, this is minimal when compared to return on assets which increased every year. SWOT ANALYSIS: Strengths: • Email customers when it is a new merchandize • Recommend product based on what the customer has previous buy ...
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