Abercrombie & Fitch UK sales and profits surge

The year to February saw profits leaping at AFH stores UK Limited (which is better known to most of us as the UK owner of Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister and Gilly Hicks), although admittedly, it was helped by the addition of a few extra days in the latest financial year.

But those additional days couldn’t have accounted for the extent of the sales and profits uplift for the period.

The company, which has plans for an Oxford Street flagship in 2025, operates 34 stores and its webstores in the UK, and it said that it performed well throughout the year, finishing with strong net sales growth that exceeded its expectations.

Turnover rose to £213.144 million from £171.147 million a year earlier and gross profit was £92.1 million, up from £71.6 million. Operating profit jumped to £9.4 million from £3 million and pre-tax profit also just about trebled, reaching £9.8 million after £3.3 million in the previous year. Net profit for the period was £8.1 million, up significantly from £1.4 million a year earlier.

It explained that this was achieved by “staying close to our customers, tightly controlling inventories and continuing to operate with financial discipline”.

That said, it still met with some “adverse impacts” during the year, including supply chain disruptions, inflation issues and the overall geopolitical landscape that continue to negatively impact the business.

While freight and materials costs edge down towards the end of the period, the negative consequences of the current economic environment were a factor and are expected to continue for some time.