The American lifestyle retailer has announced they plan to exit its London flagship store by the end of January 2021.
Located on Burlington Gardens, the Abercrombie & Fitch flagship was opened in March 2017 and despite initially performing well, making around £140,000 of sales within six hours of opening, footfall to the store has gradually decreased, and took a huge hit amid the Coronavirus induced-lockdown.
The London flagship is one of seven locations that is set to close with the others being Munich, Paris, Brussels, Madrid, Fukuoka and Dusseldorf which is already closed. In total these seven flagship stores represent a combined space of 200,000sq ft and by closing them, the company will remove $85M of lease liabilities.
Fran Horowitz, Chief Executive Officer: “With these seven closures, we should end the year with eight operating flagships down from fifteen at the beginning of the year. These actions align with our multi-year strategy of reducing dependence on tourist-driven locations to reposition within key markets and deliver a better omnichannel experience to our local customer.”
