Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) reported blockbuster first quarter results, handily topping Wall Street estimates on both the top and bottom lines. One area the retailer is looking to expand is the wedding industry.
Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Fran Horowitz explains how the concept came about. “About two years ago, the consumer came to us and they said, listen, weddings are no longer a day. They’re 2, 3, 4 days. And that speaks right to who we are, right? This long weekend… and the consumers spending time with their friends, and they’re like, ‘we need outfits through 2, 3, 4 days for some of these wedding celebrations. You know, can you guys help us out?'”
Be sure to watch the full interview with Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Fran Horowitz.
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This post was written by Stephanie Mikulich.
Video Transcript
So, you know, I picked up a couple of things on your earnings call that maybe I hadn’t heard from before.
Let’s start with this wedding business.
When did it launch?
Where is it?
How big is it?
Because it seems like it’s drawing new people into the company.
So the wedding, the wedding dress shop is an interesting concept because it started several years ago in something called the Best Dress Guest Collection where we were, you know, previously thought of as a jeans and T shirt company, we started selling dresses and the dress business continued to grow and grow.
And our customer said to us, you know, we also want dresses for certain, you know, more dressy wearing occasions.
So we started to do that.
And then about two years ago, you know, the consumer came to us and they said, listen, weddings are no longer a day, they’re 234 days and that speaks right to who we are right this long weekend.
And the team and the consumer spending time with their friends and they’re like, we need outfits to 234 days for some of these wedding celebrations.
You know, can you guys help us out.
Um And so we created this wedding dress concept.
It launched in March.
It’s in all stores and online as well.
Some stores have a bigger build out, um, in a display, but the dresses are available and in stores around the world and the season hasn’t even started.
If you think about it.
Like we got ahead of the wedding season.
The wedding season really builds up in June and into and into the fall.
So, already beating our expectations and excited to see where it’s headed in the back half, four day weddings.
That’s, that’s a festival for, and I thought it was a $300 plate and you get some uh prime rib and you, and you get out of there.
I mean, what, what into these then, then you are not on the circuit right now.
And I can tell you, you know, it’s, it’s a two day minimum.
Some of them are up to four days and you get the destination weddings.
I mean, it’s, it’s quite an incredible industry right now.
Is there a guy’s component there?
Because I will drop a name the last time I bought rent the Toxo for my brother’s wedding like seven or eight years ago and a horrible experience at men’s warehouse.
Is there any guys coming to, to the Abercrombie wedding business?
Oh, yes, absolutely.
We just, for the very first time we just launched some suits in the store, they’re selling very well.
Um The quality, again, the quality fashion um value equation is fantastic.
We’ve seen lots of positive response in social media from our consumer.
If you get a chance to walk with them and you’ll see the suits, they really look great.
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