The US clothing group Abercrombie & Fitch Co. was unable to meet expectations in the fourth quarter of 2021/22. Overall, however, the fiscal year that ended on January 30 was characterized by the recovery from the burden of the Covid-19 pandemic. This emerges from current figures published by the company on Wednesday.
According to this, annual sales were 3.71 billion US dollars (3.35 billion euros), 19 percent above the level of 2020/21. Compared to the pre-crisis year 2019/20, revenues were also increased (+2 percent). Compared to the previous year, both divisions improved significantly: in the Hollister segment, which includes the brand of the same name and the Gilly Hicks and Social Tourist labels, sales rose by 17 percent to $2.15 billion, in the Abercrombie segment with the brands Abercrombie & Fitch and Abercrombie Kids even increased by 21 percent to 1.56 billion US dollars.
Thanks to the strong growth in sales, the group returned to profitability: net income attributable to shareholders was US$263.0 million (€237.1 million) after a loss of US$114.0 million in the previous year had to be booked. At the time, however, extensive value adjustments had additionally burdened the result.
In the fourth quarter, however, the momentum of the company was severely slowed down: At 1.16 billion US dollars, sales were only four percent above the level of the same period last year. He missed the comparative value of 2019/20 by two percent. Net income attributable to shareholders of $65.5 million decreased 20 percent from the year-ago quarter due to higher freight costs and increased personnel and marketing expenses.
For the current financial year, management only forecast sales growth of two to four percent. As in the past few months, business in the USA is expected to develop significantly better than in the Asia-Pacific region and in the EMEA region, which includes Europe, the Middle East and Africa.