UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549


FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934


Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): November 18, 2015

ABERCROMBIE & FITCH CO.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware
 
1-12107
 
31-1469076
(State or other jurisdiction
 
(Commission File Number)
 
(IRS Employer
of incorporation)
 
 
 
Identification No.)

6301 Fitch Path, New Albany, Ohio 43054
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
(614) 283-6500
(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)
Not Applicable
(Former name or former address, if changed since last report)


Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:

o Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

o Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

o Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

o Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

 
 
 
 
 





Item 2.02. Results of Operations and Financial Condition.

On November 20, 2015, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (the “Company”) issued a news release (the “Release”) reporting the Company's unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended October 31, 2015. A copy of the Release is included as Exhibit 99.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is incorporated herein by reference.

In conjunction with the Release, the Company also made available additional unaudited quarterly financial information, which is furnished as Exhibit 99.2 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is incorporated herein by reference.

In conjunction with the Release, the Company also made available an investor presentation of results for the third quarter ended October 31, 2015. The presentation, which is available under the “Investor Presentations” tab in the “Investors” section of the Company's website, located at www.abercrombie.com, is furnished as Exhibit 99.3 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is incorporated herein by reference.

The Company's management conducted a conference call on November 20, 2015 to review the Company's financial results for the third quarter of 2015. A copy of the transcript of the conference call is furnished as Exhibit 99.4 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is incorporated herein by reference.


Item 8.01. Other Events.

In the Release, the Registrant also announced that the Board of Directors of the Company had declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share in respect of the Registrant's Class A Common Stock. The dividend was declared on November 18, 2015 and is payable on December 9, 2015 to stockholders of record at the close of business on December 1, 2015.


Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(a) through (c) Not applicable

(d) Exhibits:

The following exhibits are included with this Current Report on Form 8-K:

Exhibit No.
 
Description
99.1
 
News release issued by Abercrombie & Fitch Co. on November 20, 2015
 
 
 
99.2
 
Additional unaudited quarterly and fiscal year financial information
 
 
 
99.3
 
Investor presentation of results for the third quarter ended October, 31 2015
 
 
 
99.4
 
Transcript of conference call held by management of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. on November 20, 2015






SIGNATURE


Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.


 
 
ABERCROMBIE & FITCH CO.
 
 
 
 
Dated: November 23, 2015
By:
/s/ Joanne C. Crevoiserat
 
 
 
Joanne C. Crevoiserat
 
 
 
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
 
 
 







INDEX TO EXHIBITS


Exhibit No.
 
Description
99.1
 
News release issued by Abercrombie & Fitch Co. on November 20, 2015
 
 
 
99.2
 
Additional unaudited quarterly and fiscal year financial information
 
 
 
99.3
 
Investor presentation of results for the third quarter ended October, 31 2015
 
 
 
99.4
 
Transcript of conference call held by management of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. on November 20, 2015







ABERCROMBIE & FITCH REPORTS THIRD QUARTER RESULTS
 
BOARD OF DIRECTORS DECLARES QUARTERLY DIVIDEND OF $0.20


New Albany, Ohio, November 20, 2015: Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) today reported GAAP net income per diluted share of $0.60 for the thirteen weeks ended October 31, 2015, compared to GAAP net income per diluted share of $0.25 for the thirteen weeks ended November 1, 2014.

Excluding certain items, the company reported adjusted non-GAAP net income per diluted share of $0.48 for the third quarter, compared to adjusted non-GAAP net income per diluted share of $0.42 for the third quarter last year. Adjusted non-GAAP net income per diluted share included year-over-year adverse effects from changes in foreign currency exchange rates of approximately $0.13.

Both GAAP and non-GAAP net income per diluted share for the quarter reflect benefits related to a change in the estimated annual effective tax rate. In addition, GAAP and non-GAAP net income per diluted share for the quarter include discrete tax benefits of approximately $0.14 and $0.11, respectively.

A reconciliation of GAAP financial measures to non-GAAP financial measures is included in a schedule accompanying the consolidated financial statements with this release.

Arthur Martinez, Executive Chairman, said:

"Our third quarter results exceeded our expectations coming into the quarter and provide the strongest validation yet that our initiatives are working. We have seen positive customer response to the actions we have been taking on a number of fronts. We saw continued sequential improvement in comparable sales, led by positive comparable sales for our Hollister brand and across our international business. Our gross margin rate increased substantially year-over-year, as promotional frequency and intensity were moderated. Expense management remains aggressive. As a result, adjusted operating income improved meaningfully on a constant currency basis. Inventories remain well controlled.

We recognize that we still have much to achieve. We remain intensely focused on our strategic initiatives and evolving our brands' positioning and assortments, as well as improving our customer's experience.

As we look ahead in the fourth quarter, there are mixed signals in the sector and we remain cautious; however, we are confident that the work we are doing is laying the foundation for long-term profitability and growth."


Third Quarter Sales Results

Net sales for the third quarter, at $878.6 million, were approximately flat on a constant currency basis, but down 4% on a reported basis over the same period a year ago.

Comparable sales for the third quarter decreased 1%. On a sequential basis, comparable sales trends improved across all brands and geographies.

Fiscal 2015 Comparable Sales Summary (1)
Brand
 
Geography
 
 
First Quarter
 
Second Quarter
 
Third Quarter
 
Year-to-Date
 
 
 
First Quarter
 
Second Quarter
 
Third Quarter
 
Year-to-Date
Abercrombie(2)
 
(9)%
 
(7)%
 
(5)%
 
(7)%
 
United States
 
(7)%
 
(4)%
 
(3)%
 
(5)%
Hollister
 
(6)%
 
(1)%
 
3%
 
(2)%
 
International
 
(9)%
 
(4)%
 
1%
 
(4)%
Total Company
 
(8)%
 
(4)%
 
(1)%
 
(4)%
 
Total Company
 
(8)%
 
(4)%
 
(1)%
 
(4)%
(1) Comparable sales are calculated on a constant currency basis.
(2) Abercrombie includes the Abercrombie & Fitch and abercrombie kids brands.


1



By brand, net sales for the third quarter decreased 6% to $411.3 million for Abercrombie and were approximately flat at $467.3 million for Hollister.

By geography, net sales for the third quarter decreased 4% to $572.7 million in the U.S. and decreased 3% to $305.8 million internationally.

Direct-to-consumer and omnichannel sales comprised approximately 21% of total company net sales for the quarter and grew in both the U.S. and internationally on a constant currency basis over last year.


Additional Third Quarter Results Commentary

The gross profit rate for the third quarter was 63.7%. Excluding certain items, the adjusted gross profit rate for the third quarter was 63.4%, reflecting an improvement of 120 basis points on a reported basis and 210 basis points on a constant currency basis over last year, primarily due to higher average unit retails coupled with lower average unit cost. Adjusted gross profit for the quarter excluded a benefit of $2.6 million related to higher than expected recoveries on the first quarter inventory write-down.

Stores and distribution expense for the third quarter was $392.9 million, down from $413.6 million last year. Excluding certain items, adjusted stores and distribution expense decreased $18.8 million, primarily due to benefits from changes in foreign currency exchange rates, as well as expense reduction efforts, partially offset by higher direct-to-consumer expense. Adjusted stores and distribution expense for the quarter excluded $0.6 million of charges related to accelerated depreciation and disposal costs from the discontinued use of certain store fixtures, compared to $2.4 million of excluded charges last year related to lease termination, store closure costs and the company's profit improvement initiative.

Marketing, general and administrative expense for the third quarter was $117.7 million, up from $105.0 million last year, primarily due to higher compensation related expense.

The company incurred asset impairment charges in the third quarter of $12.1 million, compared to $16.7 million last year, which were excluded from adjusted results.

Net other operating income for the third quarter was $3.9 million, which included $2.1 million of insurance reimbursements, compared to $1.5 million last year.

The effective tax rate for the third quarter was a benefit of 16%. Excluding certain items, the adjusted effective tax rate for the quarter was an expense of 28%. Both the effective tax rate and the adjusted effective tax rate reflect benefits related to a change in the estimated annual effective tax rate. In addition, the effective tax rate and the adjusted effective tax rate reflect discrete benefits of $9.7 million and $7.7 million, respectively, related to a release of a valuation allowance and other discrete tax items.

On a full year basis, the company expects the adjusted effective tax rate to be in the mid-to-upper 30s, including the discrete benefits noted above.

During the third quarter, the company repurchased approximately 2.5 million shares of its common stock at an aggregate cost of $50 million. As of October 31, 2015, the company had approximately 6.5 million shares remaining available for purchase under its publicly announced stock repurchase authorizations.

The company ended the quarter with $405.6 million in cash and cash equivalents, and gross borrowings under the company's term loan agreement of $297.0 million, compared to $320.6 million in cash and cash equivalents and $300.0 million in borrowings last year.

The company ended the quarter with $601.5 million in inventory, a decrease of 3% versus last year, which included a significant increase in inventory in-transit due to a floorset shift. Excluding in-transit, inventory was down 10%.

During the quarter, the company opened 13 new stores and closed two stores.



2



Other Developments

On November 18, 2015, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share on the Class A Common Stock of Abercrombie & Fitch Co., payable on December 9, 2015 to stockholders of record at the close of business on December 1, 2015.


Outlook

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, the company expects:

Comparable sales to be approximately flat.

Continued adverse effects from foreign currency exchange rates.

Gross margin rate to be approximately flat to last year on a constant currency basis.

Operating expense to be approximately flat to last year after absorbing a provision for the restoration of incentive compensation.

A weighted average diluted share count of approximately 68 million shares, excluding effects of potential share buybacks.

On a full year basis, the company expects the adjusted effective tax rate to be in the mid-to-upper 30s, including discrete benefits relating to the release of a valuation allowance and other discrete tax items recognized through the third quarter. On a go-forward basis, the company expects the annual effective tax rate to be in the upper 30s.

The company expects capital expenditures of approximately $150 million for the full year.

In addition to the 23 new stores opened year-to-date, the company expects to open eight new stores in the fourth quarter, including six international stores and two North American stores. In addition, the company anticipates closing approximately 60 stores in the U.S. during the fiscal year through natural lease expirations.

Excluded from the company's outlook for the remainder of fiscal year 2015 are potential charges related to impairments and store closings and other potential charges related to its restructuring efforts and related tax effects.

An investor presentation of third quarter results will be available in the "Investors" section of the company's website at www.abercrombie.com at approximately 8:00 AM, Eastern Daylight Time, today.

About Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is a leading global specialty retailer of high-quality, casual apparel for Men, Women and kids with an active, youthful lifestyle under its Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie kids and Hollister Co. brands. At the end of the third quarter, the company operated 790 stores in the United States and 175 stores across Canada, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. The company also operates e-commerce websites at www.abercrombie.com, www.abercrombiekids.com and www.hollisterco.com.
 
Today at 8:30 AM, Eastern Standard Time, the company will conduct a conference call. Management will discuss the company's performance and its plans for the future and will accept questions from participants. To listen to the conference call, dial (877) 856-1968 and ask for the Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly Call or go to www.abercrombie.com. The international call-in number is (719) 325-4826. This call will be recorded and made available by dialing the replay number (888) 203-1112 or the international number (719) 457-0820 followed by the conference ID number 8013718 or through www.abercrombie.com.



3



Investor Contact:
 
Media Contact:
 
 
 
Brian Logan
 
Michael Scheiner
Abercrombie & Fitch
 
Abercrombie & Fitch
(614) 283-6877
 
(614) 283-6192
Investor_Relations@abercrombie.com
 
Public_Relations@abercrombie.com


SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995
 
A&F cautions that any forward-looking statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) contained in this Press Release or made by management or spokespeople of A&F involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change based on various important factors, many of which may be beyond the company's control. Words such as "estimate," "project," "plan," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements. Except as may be required by applicable law, we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise our forward-looking statements. The following factors, in addition to those included in the disclosure under the heading "FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND RISK FACTORS" in "ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS" of A&F's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2015, in some cases have affected, and in the future could affect, the company's financial performance and could cause actual results for fiscal 2015 and beyond to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any of the forward-looking statements included in this Press Release or otherwise made by management: changes in global economic and financial conditions, and the resulting impact on consumer confidence and consumer spending, as well as other changes in consumer discretionary spending habits, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and liquidity; the inability to manage our inventory commensurate with customer demand and changing fashion trends could adversely impact our sales levels and profitability; fluctuations in the cost, availability and quality of raw materials, labor and transportation, could cause manufacturing delays and increase our costs; we are currently involved in a selection process for a new Chief Executive Officer and if this selection process is delayed our business could be negatively impacted; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of our recent transition to a brand-based organizational model could have a negative impact on our business; a significant component of our growth strategy is international expansion, which requires significant capital investment, the success of which is dependent on a number of factors that could delay or prevent the profitability of our international operations; direct-to-consumer sales channels are a focus of our growth strategy, and the failure to successfully develop our position in these channels could have an adverse impact on our results of operations; our inability to successfully implement our strategic plans, including our restructuring efforts, could have a negative impact on our growth and profitability; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates could adversely impact our financial condition and results of operations; our business could suffer if our information technology systems are disrupted or cease to operate effectively; we may be exposed to risks and costs associated with cyber-attacks, credit card fraud and identity theft that would cause us to incur unexpected expenses and loss of revenues; our market share may be negatively impacted by increasing competition and pricing pressures from companies with brands or merchandise competitive with ours; our ability to attract customers to our stores depends, in part, on the success of the shopping malls or area attractions in which most of our stores are located; our failure to protect our reputation could have a material adverse effect on our brands; we rely on the experience and skills of our senior executive officers, the loss of whom could have a material adverse effect on our business; we depend upon independent third parties for the manufacture and delivery of all our merchandise, a disruption of which could result in lost sales and could increase our costs; our reliance on two distribution centers domestically and third-party distribution centers internationally makes us susceptible to disruptions or adverse conditions affecting our distribution centers; we may be exposed to liabilities under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and any determination that we violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act could have a material adverse effect on our business; in a number of our European stores, associates are represented by workers’ councils and unions, whose demands could adversely affect our profitability or operating standards for our brands; our facilities, systems and stores, as well as the facilities and systems of our vendors and manufacturers, are vulnerable to natural disasters, pandemic disease and other unexpected events, any of which could result in an interruption to our business and adversely affect our operating results; our litigation and regulatory compliance exposure could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations; our inability or failure to adequately protect our trademarks could have a negative impact on our brand image and limit our ability to penetrate new markets; fluctuations in our tax obligations and effective tax rate may result in volatility in our operating results; extreme weather conditions and the seasonal nature of our business may cause net sales to fluctuate and negatively impact our results of operations; the impact of war or acts of terrorism could have a material adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition; changes in and compliance with the regulatory or compliance landscape could adversely affect our business and results of operations; our Asset-Based Revolving Credit Agreement and our Term Loan Agreement include restrictive covenants that limit our flexibility in operating our business; and, compliance with changing regulations and standards for accounting, corporate governance and public disclosure could adversely affect our business, results of operations and reported financial results.




4



Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations
(in thousands, except per share data)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thirteen Weeks Ended
 
Thirteen Weeks Ended
 
October 31, 2015
 
% of Net Sales
 
November 1, 2014
 
% of Net Sales
 
(Unaudited)
 
(Unaudited)
Net sales
$
878,572

 
100.0
 %
 
$
911,453

 
100.0
 %
Cost of goods sold
318,785

 
36.3
 %
 
344,383

 
37.8
 %
Gross profit
559,787

 
63.7
 %
 
567,070

 
62.2
 %
Stores and distribution expense
392,942

 
44.6
 %
 
413,551

 
45.4
 %
Marketing, general and administrative expense
117,698

 
13.4
 %
 
104,981

 
11.5
 %
Asset impairment
12,076

 
1.4
 %
 
16,706

 
1.8
 %
Other operating income, net
(3,919
)
 
(0.4
)%
 
(1,534
)
 
(0.2
)%
Operating income
40,990

 
4.7
 %
 
33,366

 
3.7
 %
Interest expense, net
4,586

 
0.4
 %
 
5,572

 
0.6
 %
Income before taxes
36,404

 
4.1
 %
 
27,794

 
3.0
 %
Tax (benefit) expense
(5,881
)
 
(0.7
)%
 
9,567

 
1.1
 %
Net income
42,285

 
4.8
 %
 
18,227

 
2.0
 %
Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests
394

 
 %
 

 
 %
Net income attributable to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
$
41,891

 
4.8
 %
 
$
18,227

 
2.0
 %
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Net income per share attributable to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Basic
$
0.61

 
 
 
$
0.26

 
 
Diluted
$
0.60

 
 
 
$
0.25

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Weighted-average shares outstanding:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Basic
68,866

 
 
 
70,814

 
 
Diluted
69,265

 
 
 
72,128

 
 




5




Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations
(in thousands, except per share data)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thirty-nine Weeks Ended
 
Thirty-nine Weeks Ended
 
October 31, 2015
 
% of Net Sales
 
November 1, 2014
 
% of Net Sales
 
(Unaudited)
 
(Unaudited)
Net sales
$
2,405,750

 
100.0
 %
 
$
2,624,486

 
100.0
 %
Cost of goods sold
924,552

 
38.4
 %
 
992,801

 
37.8
 %
Gross profit
1,481,198

 
61.6
 %
 
1,631,685

 
62.2
 %
Stores and distribution expense
1,173,773

 
48.8
 %
 
1,257,422

 
47.8
 %
Marketing, general and administrative expense
345,077

 
14.3
 %
 
339,595

 
12.9
 %
Restructuring (benefit) charge
(1,598
)
 
(0.1
)%
 
6,053

 
0.2
 %
Asset impairment
18,209

 
0.8
 %
 
16,706

 
0.6
 %
Other operating income, net
(7,018
)
 
(0.3
)%
 
(9,444
)
 
(0.4
)%
Operating (loss) income
(47,245
)
 
(2.0
)%
 
21,353

 
0.8
 %
Interest expense, net
13,792

 
0.6
 %
 
9,589

 
0.4
 %
(Loss) income before taxes
(61,037
)
 
(2.5
)%
 
11,764

 
0.4
 %
Tax (benefit) expense
(40,688
)
 
(1.7
)%
 
4,331

 
0.2
 %
Net (loss) income
(20,349
)
 
(0.8
)%
 
7,433

 
0.3
 %
Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests
1,816

 
0.1
 %
 

 
 %
Net (loss) income attributable to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
$
(22,165
)
 
(0.9
)%
 
$
7,433

 
0.3
 %
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Net (loss) income per share attributable to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Basic
$
(0.32
)
 
 
 
$
0.10

 
 
Diluted
$
(0.32
)
 
 
 
$
0.10

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Weighted-average shares outstanding:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Basic
69,363

 
 
 
72,577

 
 
Diluted
69,363

 
 
 
73,870

 
 


6




Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
(in thousands)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
October 31, 2015
 
January 31, 2015
 
November 1, 2014
ASSETS
(Unaudited)
 
 
 
(Unaudited)
Current assets:
 
 
 
 
 
Cash and equivalents
$
405,611

 
$
520,708

 
$
320,564

Receivables
62,132

 
52,910

 
65,083

Inventories
601,541

 
460,794

 
617,542

Deferred income taxes, net
34,344

 
13,986

 
17,543

Other current assets
109,527

 
116,574

 
116,160

Total current assets
1,213,155

 
1,164,972

 
1,136,892

Property and equipment, net
918,926

 
967,001

 
1,050,795

Other assets
380,663

 
373,194

 
387,882

TOTAL ASSETS
$
2,512,744

 
$
2,505,167

 
$
2,575,569

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY
 
 
 
 
Current liabilities:
 
 
 
 
 
Accounts payable
$
303,992

 
$
141,685

 
$
197,606

Accrued expenses
309,209

 
282,736

 
273,362

Short-term portion of deferred lease credits
25,031

 
26,629

 
28,972

Income taxes payable
4,665

 
32,804

 
9,251

Short-term portion of borrowings, net
1,513

 
2,102

 
2,102

Total current liabilities
644,410

 
485,956

 
511,293

Long-term liabilities:
 
 
 
 
 
Long-term portion of deferred lease credits
$
96,993

 
$
106,393

 
$
119,229

Long-term portion of borrowings, net
288,091

 
291,310

 
291,836

Leasehold financing obligations
48,370

 
50,521

 
55,467

Other liabilities
166,002

 
181,286

 
202,285

Total long-term liabilities
599,456

 
629,510

 
668,817

Total Abercrombie & Fitch Co. stockholders' equity
1,265,164

 
1,389,701

 
1,395,459

Noncontrolling interests
3,714

 

 

Total stockholders' equity
1,268,878

 
1,389,701

 
1,395,459

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY
$
2,512,744

 
$
2,505,167

 
$
2,575,569

    


7






Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Schedule of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Thirteen Weeks Ended October 31, 2015
(in thousands, except per share data)
(Unaudited)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
GAAP (1)
 
Excluded Items
 
Adjusted
 Non-GAAP (6)
Gross profit (2)
$
559,787

 
$
(2,573
)
 
$
557,214

Stores and distribution expense (3)
392,942

 
583

 
392,359

Asset impairment (4)
12,076

 
12,076

 

Operating income
40,990

 
10,086

 
51,076

Income before taxes
36,404

 
10,086

 
46,490

Tax (benefit) expense (5)
(5,881
)
 
19,060

 
13,179

Net income attributable to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
$
41,891

 
$
(8,974
)
 
$
32,917

 
 
 
 
 
 
Net income per diluted share
$
0.60

 
$
(0.12
)
 
$
0.48

 
 
 
 
 
 

(1) "GAAP" refers to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

(2) Excluded Items consist of benefits of $2.6 million related to higher than expected recovery on inventory previously written-down.

(3) Excluded Items consist of charges of $0.6 million related to accelerated depreciation and disposal costs associated with a decision to discontinue the use of certain store fixtures.

(4) Excluded Items consist of charges of $12.1 million related to stores whose asset carrying value exceeded fair value.

(5) Both GAAP and Adjusted Non-GAAP reflect benefits related to a change in the estimated annual effective tax rate. In addition, GAAP and Adjusted Non-GAAP include discrete benefits of $9.7 million and $7.7 million, respectively, related to a release of a valuation allowance and other discrete tax items.
 
(6) Non-GAAP financial measures should not be used as alternatives to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and are also not intended to supersede or replace the company's GAAP financial measures. The company believes it is useful to investors to provide the non-GAAP financial measures to assess the company's operating performance.


8






Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Schedule of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Thirteen Weeks Ended November 1, 2014
(in thousands, except per share data)
(Unaudited)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
GAAP (1)
 
Excluded Items
 
Adjusted
Non-GAAP
(5)
Stores and distribution expense (2)
$
413,551

 
$
2,357

 
$
411,194

Marketing, general and administrative expense (3)
104,981

 
1,205

 
103,776

Asset impairment (4)
16,706

 
16,706

 

Operating income
33,366

 
20,268

 
53,634

Income before taxes
27,794

 
20,268

 
48,062

Tax expense
9,567

 
8,089

 
17,656

Net income attributable to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
$
18,227

 
$
12,179

 
$
30,406

 
 
 
 
 
 
Net income per diluted share
$
0.25

 
$
0.17

 
$
0.42

 
 
 
 
 
 

(1) "GAAP" refers to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

(2) Excluded Items consist of charges of $2.3 million related to lease termination and store closure costs.

(3) Excluded Items consist of charges of $0.7 million related to the company's profit improvement initiative and $0.6 million related to legal, advisory and other costs associated with certain corporate governance matters.

(4) Excluded Items consist of charges of $16.7 million related to stores whose asset carrying value exceeded fair value.

(5) Non-GAAP financial measures should not be used as alternatives to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and are also not intended to supersede or replace the company's GAAP financial measures. The company believes it is useful to investors to provide the non-GAAP financial measures to assess the company's operating performance.

9






Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Schedule of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Thirty-nine Weeks Ended October 31, 2015
(in thousands, except per share data)
(Unaudited)






 
GAAP (1)
 
Excluded Items
 
Adjusted Non-GAAP (7)
Gross profit (2)
$
1,481,198

 
$
21,667

 
$
1,502,865

Stores and distribution expense (3)
1,173,773

 
6,665

 
1,167,108

Marketing, general and administrative expense (4)
345,077

 
17,523

 
327,554

Restructuring benefit (5)
(1,598
)
 
(1,598
)
 

Asset impairment (6)
18,209

 
18,209

 

Operating (loss) income
(47,245
)
 
62,466

 
15,221

(Loss) income before taxes
(61,037
)
 
62,466

 
1,429

Tax benefit
(40,688
)
 
35,961

 
(4,727
)
Net (loss) income attributable to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
$
(22,165
)
 
$
26,505

 
$
4,340

 
 
 
 
 
 
Net (loss) income per diluted share
$
(0.32
)
 
$
0.38

 
$
0.06

 
 
 
 
 
 


(1) "GAAP" refers to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

(2) Excluded Items consist of charges of $21.7 million related to an inventory write-down, net of recoveries.

(3) Excluded Items consist of charges of $4.2 million related to accelerated depreciation and disposal costs associated with a decision to discontinue the use of certain store fixtures, $1.8 million related to lease termination and store closure costs, and $0.7 million related to the company's continuous profit improvement program.

(4) Excluded Items consist of charges of $15.8 million related to legal settlement charges and $1.8 million related to the company's continuous profit improvement program.

(5) Excluded Items consist of benefits of $1.6 million related to the Gilly Hicks brand.

(6) Excluded Items consist of charges of $12.1 million related to stores whose asset carrying value exceeded fair value, $4.5 million related to the discontinued use of certain store fixtures and $1.6 million related to a company owned aircraft.

(7) Non-GAAP financial measures should not be used as alternatives to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and are also not intended to supersede or replace the company's GAAP financial measures. The company believes it is useful to investors to provide the non-GAAP financial measures to assess the company's operating performance.

10






Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Schedule of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Thirty-nine Weeks Ended November 1, 2014
(in thousands, except per share data)
(Unaudited)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
GAAP (1)
 
Excluded Items
 
Adjusted Non-GAAP (6)
Stores and distribution expense (2)
$
1,257,422

 
$
4,365

 
$
1,253,057

Marketing, general and administrative expense (3)
339,595

 
11,125

 
328,470

Restructuring charge (4)
6,053

 
6,053

 

Asset impairment (5)
16,706

 
16,706

 

Operating income
21,353

 
38,249

 
59,602

Income before taxes
11,764

 
38,249

 
50,013

Tax expense
4,331

 
14,193

 
18,524

Net income attributable to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
$
7,433

 
$
24,056

 
$
31,489

 
 
 
 
 
 
Net income per diluted share
$
0.10

 
$
0.33

 
$
0.43

 
 
 
 
 
 

(1) "GAAP" refers to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

(2) Excluded Items consist of charges of $2.3 million related to lease termination and store closure costs and $2.1 million related to the company's profit improvement initiative.

(3) Excluded Items consist of charges of $7.5 million related to legal, advisory and other costs associated with certain corporate governance matters and $3.6 million related to the company's profit improvement initiative.

(4) Excluded Items consist of charges of $6.1 million related to the Gilly Hicks brand.

(5) Excluded Items consist of charges of $16.7 million related to stores whose asset carrying value exceeded fair value.

(6) Non-GAAP financial measures should not be used as alternatives to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and are also not intended to supersede or replace the company's GAAP financial measures. The company believes it is useful to investors to provide the non-GAAP financial measures to assess the company's operating performance.


11



Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Store Count Activity

Thirteen Weeks Ended October 31, 2015
 
 
Abercrombie(1)
 
Hollister
 
Total
U.S. Stores
 
 
 
 
 
 
August 1, 2015
 
354

 
429

 
783

New
 
7

 
2

 
9

Closed
 
(2
)
 

 
(2
)
October 31, 2015
 
359

 
431

 
790

International Stores
 
 
 
 
 
 
August 1, 2015
 
34

 
137

 
171

New
 
2

 
2

 
4

Closed
 

 

 

October 31, 2015
 
36

 
139

 
175


Thirty-nine Weeks Ended October 31, 2015
 
 
Abercrombie(1)
 
Hollister
 
Total
U.S. Stores
 
 
 
 
 
 
January 31, 2015
 
361

 
433

 
794

New
 
11

 
2

 
13

Closed
 
(13
)
 
(4
)
 
(17
)
October 31, 2015
 
359

 
431

 
790

International Stores
 
 
 
 
 
 
January 31, 2015
 
32

 
135

 
167

New
 
4

 
6

 
10

Closed
 

 
(2
)
 
(2
)
October 31, 2015
 
36

 
139

 
175


(1) Abercrombie includes the company's Abercrombie & Fitch and abercrombie kids brands. Locations with abercrombie kids carveouts with Abercrombie & Fitch are represented as a single store count.



12




Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Financial Information
(Unaudited)
(in thousands, except per share data and store data)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fiscal 2014
 
 
 
Fiscal 2015
 
2011
 
2012
 
2013
 
Q1
 
Q2
 
Q3
 
Q4
 
2014
 
Q1
 
Q2
 
Q3
 
YTD
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Net sales
$
4,158,058

 
$
4,510,805

 
$
4,116,897

 
$
822,428

 
$
890,605

 
$
911,453

 
$
1,119,544

 
$
3,744,030

 
$
709,422

 
$
817,756

 
$
878,572

 
$
2,405,750

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cost of goods sold
1,607,834

 
1,694,096

 
1,541,462

 
310,769

 
337,649

 
344,383

 
437,659

 
1,430,460

 
297,873

 
307,894

 
318,785

 
924,552

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gross profit
2,550,224

 
2,816,709

 
2,575,435

 
511,659

 
552,956

 
567,070

 
681,885

 
2,313,570

 
411,549

 
509,862

 
559,787

 
1,481,198

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Stores and distribution expense
1,820,226

 
1,980,519

 
1,907,687

 
417,571

 
426,301

 
413,551

 
445,629

 
1,703,051

 
391,638

 
389,193

 
392,942

 
1,173,773

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Marketing, general and administrative expense
437,120

 
473,883

 
481,784

 
123,581

 
111,033

 
104,981

 
119,225

 
458,820

 
107,533

 
119,846

 
117,698

 
345,077

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Restructuring charge (benefit)

 

 
81,500

 
5,633

 
419

 

 
2,378

 
8,431

 
(1,598
)
 

 

 
(1,598
)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Asset impairment
68,022

 
7,407

 
46,715

 

 

 
16,706

 
28,282

 
44,988

 
6,133

 

 
12,076

 
18,209

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Other operating expense (income), net
3,472

 
(19,333
)
 
(23,074
)
 
(3,620
)
 
(4,290
)
 
(1,534
)
 
(5,795
)
 
(15,239
)
 
(1,960
)
 
(1,139
)
 
(3,919
)
 
(7,018
)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Operating income (loss)
221,384

 
374,233

 
80,823

 
(31,506
)
 
19,493

 
33,366

 
92,166

 
113,519

 
(90,197
)
 
1,962

 
40,990

 
(47,245
)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Interest expense, net
3,577

 
7,288

 
7,546

 
1,997

 
2,020

 
5,572

 
4,776

 
14,365

 
4,639

 
4,567

 
4,586

 
13,792

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Income (loss) from continuing operations before taxes
217,807

 
366,945

 
73,277

 
(33,503
)
 
17,473

 
27,794

 
87,390

 
99,154

 
(94,836
)
 
(2,605
)
 
36,404

 
(61,037
)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tax expense (benefit) for continuing operations
74,669

 
129,934

 
18,649

 
(9,832
)
 
4,596

 
9,567

 
43,002

 
47,333

 
(31,590
)
 
(3,217
)
 
(5,881
)
 
(40,688
)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Net income (loss) from continuing operations
143,138

 
237,011

 
54,628

 
(23,671
)
 
12,877

 
18,227

 
44,388

 
51,821

 
(63,246
)
 
612

 
42,285

 
(20,349
)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Net income from discontinued operations (net of taxes)
796

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
1,422

 
394

 
1,816

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Net income (loss) attributable to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
$
143,934

 
$
237,011

 
$
54,628

 
$
(23,671
)
 
$
12,877

 
$
18,227

 
$
44,388

 
$
51,821

 
$
(63,246
)
 
$
(810
)
 
$
41,891

 
$
(22,165
)



1



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fiscal 2014
 
 
 
Fiscal 2015
 
2011
 
2012
 
2013
 
Q1
 
Q2
 
Q3
 
Q4
 
2014
 
Q1
 
Q2
 
Q3
 
YTD
Net Income (Loss) Per Share from Continuing Operations attributable to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Basic
$
1.65

 
$
2.89

 
$
0.71

 
$
(0.32
)
 
$
0.18

 
$
0.26

 
$
0.64

 
$
0.72

 
$
(0.91
)
 
$
(0.01
)
 
$
0.61

 
$
(0.32
)
 Diluted
$
1.60

 
$
2.85

 
$
0.69

 
$
(0.32
)
 
$
0.17

 
$
0.25

 
$
0.63

 
$
0.71

 
$
(0.91
)
 
$
(0.01
)
 
$
0.60

 
$
(0.32
)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Net Income Per Share from Discontinued Operations attributable to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Basic
$
0.01

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 Diluted
$
0.01

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
$

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Net Income (Loss) Per Share attributable to Abercrombie & Fitch Co.:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Basic
$
1.66

 
$
2.89

 
$
0.71

 
$
(0.32
)
 
$
0.18

 
$
0.26

 
$
0.64

 
$
0.72

 
$
(0.91
)
 
$
(0.01
)
 
$
0.61

 
$
(0.32
)
 Diluted
$
1.61

 
$
2.85

 
$
0.69

 
$
(0.32
)
 
$
0.17

 
$
0.25

 
$
0.63

 
$
0.71

 
$
(0.91
)
 
$
(0.01
)
 
$
0.60

 
$
(0.32
)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Weighted-Average Shares Outstanding:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Basic
86,848

 
81,940

 
77,157

 
74,483

 
72,436

 
70,814

 
69,409

 
71,785

 
69,510

 
69,713

 
68,866

 
69,363

 Diluted
89,537

 
83,175

 
78,666

 
74,483

 
73,756

 
72,128

 
70,136

 
72,937

 
69,510

 
69,713

 
69,265

 
69,363

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Abercrombie Comparable Sales (1)
 
 
 
 
 
 
(2)%
 
(2)%
 
(7)%
 
(8)%
 
(5)%
 
(9)%
 
(7)%
 
(5)%
 
(7)%
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Hollister Comparable Sales
8%
 
(1)%
 
(14)%
 
(7)%
 
(10)%
 
(12)%
 
(11)%
 
(10)%
 
(6)%
 
(1)%
 
3%
 
(2)%
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Comparable Sales (2)
 
 
(1)%
 
(11)%
 
(4)%
 
(7)%
 
(10)%
 
(10)%
 
(8)%
 
(8)%
 
(4)%
 
(1)%
 
(4)%
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Shares Outstanding
85,638

 
78,445

 
76,402

 
72,775

 
71,363

 
69,336

 
69,352

 
69,352

 
69,557

 
69,600

 
67,153

 
67,153

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Number of Stores - End of Period (3)
1,045

 
1,041

 
1,006

 
999

 
997

 
1,000

 
969

 
969

 
962

 
954

 
965

 
965

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gross Square Feet - End of Period
7,778

 
7,958

 
7,736

 
7,682

 
7,683

 
7,715

 
7,517

 
7,517

 
7,456

 
7,434

 
7,477

 
7,477

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                (1) Abercrombie includes the Company's Abercrombie & Fitch and abercrombie kids brands.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                     (2) Comparable sales are calculated on a constant currency basis and exclude Gilly Hicks beginning in Q4 of fiscal 2014.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (3) Prior period store counts have been restated to count multi-brand outlet stores as a single store.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2


INVESTOR PRESENTATION 2015 THIRD QUARTER


 
2 SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995 A&F cautions that any forward-looking statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) contained in this presentation or made by management or spokespeople of A&F involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change based on various important factors, many of which may be beyond the company's control. Words such as "estimate," "project," "plan," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements. Except as may be required by applicable law, we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise our forward-looking statements. The factors included in the disclosure under the heading "FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND RISK FACTORS" in "ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS" of A&F's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2015 in some cases have affected, and in the future could affect, the company's financial performance and could cause actual results for the 2015 Fiscal year and beyond to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any of the forward-looking statements included in this presentation or otherwise made by management. OTHER INFORMATION A reconciliation of GAAP financial measures to non-GAAP financial measures is included in a schedule accompanying the consolidated financial statements in this presentation. As used in the presentation, "GAAP" refers to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. All dollar and share amounts are in 000’s unless otherwise stated. Sub-totals and totals may not foot due to rounding. Net Income and Net Income per share financial measures included herein are attributable to the shareholders of Abercrombie & Fitch Co., excluding net income attributable to noncontrolling interests.


 
3 Q3 ADJUSTED P&L SUMMARY* * The Q3 Adjusted P&L Summary for the current and prior periods is presented on a non-GAAP basis and excludes the items set out on page 4. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be used as alternatives to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and are also not intended to supersede or replace the company's GAAP financial measures. The company believes it is useful to investors to provide the non-GAAP financial measures to assess the company's operating performance. A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP results is included as an appendix to the presentation. 2015 % OF NET SALES 2014 % OF NET SALES NET SALES $878,572 100.0% $911,453 100.0% GROSS PROFIT 557,214 63.4% 567,070 62.2% OPERATING EXPENSE 510,057 58.1% 514,970 56.5% OTHER OPERATING INCOME, NET (3,919) -0.4% (1,534) -0.2% OPERATING INCOME 51,076 5.8% 53,634 5.9% INTEREST EXPENSE, NET 4,586 0.5% 5,572 0.6% INCOME BEFORE TAXES 46,490 5.3% 48,062 5.4% TAX EXPENSE 13,179 1.5% 17,656 1.9% NET INCOME 32,917 3.7% 30,406 3.3% NET INCOME PER SHARE BASIC $0.48 $0.43 DILUTED $0.48 $0.42 WEIGHTED-AVERAGE SHARES OUTSTANDING BASIC 68,866 70,814 DILUTED 69,265 72,128


 
4 EXCLUDED ITEMS (PRE-TAX) 2015 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 YEAR TO DATE INVENTORY WRITE-DOWN (RECOVERY) $26,861 $(2,621) $(2,573) $21,667 LEGAL SETTLEMENT CHARGES — 15,753 — 15,753 ASSET IMPAIRMENT, STORE FIXTURES, LEASE TERMINATION AND STORE CLOSURE COSTS 10,112 1,394 12,659 24,165 PROFIT IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVE 2,479 — — 2,479 GILLY HICKS RESTRUCTURING CHARGES (1,598) — — (1,598) TOTAL $37,854 $14,526 $10,086 $62,466 2014 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 FULL YEAR ASSET IMPAIRMENT, LEASE TERMINATION AND STORE CLOSURE CHARGES — — $18,958 $31,641 $50,599 PROFIT IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVE AND CORPORATE GOVERANCE 9,964 1,964 1,310 718 13,956 GILLY HICKS RESTRUCTURING CHARGES 5,633 419 — 2,378 8,431 CEO TRANSITION COSTS — — — 5,188 5,188 TOTAL $15,597 $2,383 $20,268 $39,925 $78,174


 
5 * Comparable sales are calculated on a constant currency basis. Sales include store and DTC sales. (1) Abercrombie includes the company's Abercrombie & Fitch and abercrombie kids brands. FISCAL 2015 COMPARABLE SALES BY BRAND* Q3 SALES MIX Q1 Q2 Q3 YTD ABERCROMBIE (1) -9% -7% -5% -7% HOLLISTER -6% -1% 3% -2% TOTAL COMPANY -8% -4% -1% -4% ABERCROMBIE 46.8% HOLLISTER 53.2% YTD SALES MIX ABERCROMBIE 47.0% HOLLISTER 53.0%


 
6 * Comparable sales are calculated on a constant currency basis. Sales include store and DTC sales. FISCAL 2015 COMPARABLE SALES BY GEOGRAPHY* Q3 SALES MIX Q1 Q2 Q3 YTD U.S. -7% -4% -3% -5% INTERNATIONAL -9% -4% 1% -4% TOTAL COMPANY -8% -4% -1% -4% INTERNATIONAL 34.8% U.S. 65.2% YTD SALES MIX INTERNATIONAL 36.1% U.S. 63.9%


 
7 Q3 ADJUSTED OPERATING EXPENSE* * Q3 Adjusted Operating Expense excludes the items set out on page 4. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be used as alternatives to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and are also not intended to supersede or replace the company's GAAP financial measures. The company believes it is useful to investors to provide the non-GAAP financial measures to assess the company's operating performance. A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP results is included as an appendix to the presentation. (1) Includes rent, other landlord charges, utilities, depreciation and other occupancy expense. (2) Includes selling payroll, store management and support, other store expense, direct-to-consumer expense, and distribution center costs. (3) Rounded based on reported percentages. THIRD QUARTER 2015 % OF NET SALES 2014 % OF NET SALES Δ bps (3) STORE OCCUPANCY (1) $180,804 20.6% $187,459 20.6% — ALL OTHER (2) 211,555 24.1% 223,735 24.5% (40) STORES AND DISTRIBUTION 392,359 44.7% 411,194 45.1% (40) MARKETING, GENERAL & ADMINISTRATIVE 117,698 13.4% 103,776 11.4% 200 TOTAL $510,057 58.1% $514,970 56.5% 160


 
8 SHARE REPURCHASES FY 2015 FY 2014 SHARES REPURCHASED COST AVERAGE COST SHARES REPURCHASED COST AVERAGE COST FIRST QUARTER — — — 3,825.7 $150,000 $39.21 SECOND QUARTER — — — 1,459.4 $60,000 $41.11 THIRD QUARTER 2,460.5 $50,029 $20.33 2,039.0 $75,038 $36.80 FOURTH QUARTER — — — TOTAL 2,460.5 $50,029 $20.33 7,324.1 $285,038 $38.92


 
9 Q3 STORE OPENINGS* BRAND CENTER CITY DATE U.S . Hollister Mall of San Juan San Juan, PR 8/8/2015 A&F Coolsprings Galleria Franklin, TN 9/2/2015 Hollister Liberty Center Liberty Center, OH 10/22/2015 INTERN ATIONA L Hollister Joy City Chaoyang Beijing, China 8/15/2015 Hollister YOHO Mall Hong Kong 9/1/2015 A&F Riverside 66 Tianjin, China 9/19/2015 A&F Pacific Centre Vancouver, CA 10/24/2015 OUTLE T A&F The Crossings Premium Outlet Tannersville, PA 8/8/2015 A&F Vacaville Premium Outlets Vacaville, CA 8/8/2015 A&F Chicago Premium Outlets Aurora, IL 8/27/2015 A&F Outlet Shoppes of the Bluegrass Louisville, KY 10/24/2015 * Excludes two relocated A&F stores which are included in store openings in the store count activity table on page 11.


 
10 OUTLOOK* FOR THE FOURTH QUARTER OF FISCAL 2015, THE COMPANY EXPECTS: • COMPARABLE SALES TO BE APPROXIMATELY FLAT • CONTINUED ADVERSE EFFECTS FROM FOREIGN CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATES • GROSS MARGIN RATE TO BE APPROXIMATELY FLAT TO LAST YEAR ON A CONSTANT CURRENCY BASIS • OPERATING EXPENSE TO BE APPROXIMATELY FLAT TO LAST YEAR AFTER ABSORBING A PROVISION FOR THE RESTORATION OF INCENTIVE COMPENSATION • WEIGHTED AVERAGE DILUTED SHARE COUNT OF APPROXIMATELY 68 MILLION SHARES, EXCLUDING EFFECTS OF POTENTIAL SHARE REPURCHASES FULL-YEAR ADJUSTED EFFECTIVE TAX RATE TO BE IN THE MID-TO-UPPER 30s, INCLUDING DISCRETE BENEFITS RELATING TO THE RELEASE OF A VALUATION ALLOWANCE AND OTHER DISCRETE TAX ITEMS FULL-YEAR CAPITAL EXPENDITURES OF APPROXIMATELY $150 MILLION * Excluded from the company's Outlook for the remainder of fiscal year 2015 are potential charges related to impairments and store closings and other potential charges related to its restructuring efforts and related tax effects.


 
11 Q3 STORE COUNT ACTIVITY * Includes Asia and the Middle East. (1) Abercrombie includes the company's Abercrombie & Fitch and abercrombie kids brands. Locations with abercrombie kids carveouts within Abercrombie & Fitch stores are represented as a single store count. ALL BRANDS TOTAL U.S. CANADA EUROPE REST OF WORLD* START OF Q3 2015 954 783 18 118 35 OPENINGS 13 9 1 — 3 CLOSINGS (2) (2) — — — END OF Q3 2015 965 790 19 118 38 ABERCROMBIE (1) START OF Q3 2015 388 354 6 17 11 OPENINGS 9 7 1 — 1 CLOSINGS (2) (2) — — — END OF Q3 2015 395 359 7 17 12 HOLLISTER CO. START OF Q3 2015 566 429 12 101 24 OPENINGS 4 2 — — 2 CLOSINGS — — — — — END OF Q3 2015 570 431 12 101 26


 
12 STRATEGIC INITIATIVES ONGOING EFFORTS TO TURN AROUND THE BUSINESS ARE FOCUSED ON: • PUTTING THE CUSTOMER AT THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING WE DO • DELIVERING A COMPELLING AND DIFFERENTIATED ASSORTMENT • OPTIMIZING OUR BRAND REACH DOMESTICALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY AND OPTIMIZING OUR PERFORMANCE IN EACH CHANNEL • DEFINING A CLEAR POSITION FOR OUR BRANDS • CONTINUING TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY AND REDUCE EXPENSE • ENSURING WE ARE ORGANIZED TO SUCCEED


 
13 APPENDIX: RECONCILIATION OF Q3 2015 NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES GAAP (1) EXCLUDED ITEMS ADJUSTED NON-GAAP (6) GROSS PROFIT (2) $559,787 $(2,573) $557,214 STORES AND DISTRIBUTION EXPENSE (3) 392,942 583 392,359 ASSET IMPAIRMENT (4) 12,076 12,076 — OPERATING INCOME 40,990 10,086 51,076 INCOME BEFORE TAXES 36,404 10,086 46,490 TAX (BENEFIT) EXPENSE (5) (5,881) 19,060 13,179 NET INCOME $41,891 $(8,974) $32,917 NET INCOME PER DILUTED SHARE $0.60 $(0.12) $0.48 (1) "GAAP" refers to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. (2) Excluded Items consist of benefits of $2.6 million related to higher than expected recovery on inventory previously written-down. (3) Excluded Items consist of charges of $0.6 million related to accelerated depreciation and disposal costs associated with a decision to discontinue the use of certain store fixtures. (4) Excluded Items consist of charges of $12.1 million related to stores whose asset carrying value exceeded fair value. (5) Both GAAP and Adjusted Non-GAAP reflect benefits related to a change in the estimated annual effective tax rate. In addition, GAAP and Adjusted Non-GAAP include discrete benefits of $9.7 million and $7.7 million, respectively, related to a release of a valuation allowance and other discrete tax items. (6) Non-GAAP financial measures should not be used as alternatives to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and are also not intended to supersede or replace the company's GAAP financial measures. The company believes it is useful to investors to provide the non-GAAP financial measures to assess the company's operating performance. THIRTEEN WEEKS ENDED OCTOBER 31, 2015 (IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT PER SHARE DATA) (UNAUDITED)


 
14 APPENDIX: RECONCILIATION OF YTD 2015 NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES (1) "GAAP" refers to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. (2) Excluded Items consist of charges of $21.7 million related to an inventory write-down, net of recoveries. (3) Excluded Items consist of charges of $4.2 million related to accelerated depreciation and disposal costs associated with a decision to discontinue the use of certain store fixtures, $1.8 million related to lease termination and store closure costs, and $0.7 million related to the company's continuous profit improvement program. (4) Excluded Items consist of charges of $15.8 million related to legal settlement charges and $1.8 million related to the company's continuous profit improvement program. (5) Excluded Items consist of benefits of $1.6 million related to the Gilly Hicks brand. (6) Excluded Items consist of charges of $12.1 million related to stores whose asset carrying value exceeded fair value, $4.5 million related to the discontinued use of certain store fixtures and $1.6 million related to a company owned aircraft. (7) Non-GAAP financial measures should not be used as alternatives to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and are also not intended to supersede or replace the company's GAAP financial measures. The company believes it is useful to investors to provide the non-GAAP financial measures to assess the company's operating performance. THIRTY-NINE WEEKS ENDED OCTOBER 31, 2015 (IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT PER SHARE DATA) (UNAUDITED) GAAP (1) EXCLUDED ITEMS ADJUSTED NON-GAAP (7) GROSS PROFIT (2) $1,481,198 $21,667 $1,502,865 STORES AND DISTRIBUTION EXPENSE (3) 1,173,773 6,665 1,167,108 MARKETING, GENERAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSE (4) 345,077 17,523 327,554 RESTRUCTURING BENEFIT (5) (1,598) (1,598) — ASSET IMPAIRMENT (6) 18,209 18,209 — OPERATING (LOSS) INCOME (47,245) 62,466 15,221 (LOSS) INCOME BEFORE TAXES (61,037) 62,466 1,429 TAX BENEFIT (40,688) 35,961 (4,727) NET (LOSS) INCOME $(22,165) $26,505 $4,340 NET (LOSS) INCOME PER DILUTED SHARE $(0.32) $0.38 $0.06


 
15 APPENDIX: RECONCILIATION OF Q3 2014 NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES (1) "GAAP" refers to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. (2) Excluded Items consist of charges of $2.3 million related to lease termination and store closure costs. (3) Excluded Items consist of charges of $0.7 million related to the company's profit improvement initiative and $0.6 million of legal, advisory and other costs related to certain corporate governance matters. (4) Excluded Items consist of charges of $16.7 million related to stores whose asset carrying value exceeded fair value. (5) Non-GAAP financial measures should not be used as alternatives to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and are also not intended to supersede or replace the company's GAAP financial measures. The company believes it is useful to investors to provide the non-GAAP financial measures to assess the company's operating performance. THIRTEEN WEEKS ENDED NOVEMBER 1, 2014 (IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT PER SHARE DATA) (UNAUDITED) GAAP (1) EXCLUDED ITEMS ADJUSTED NON-GAAP (5) STORES AND DISTRIBUTION EXPENSE (2) $413,551 $2,357 $411,194 MARKETING, GENERAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSE (3) 104,981 1,205 103,776 ASSET IMPAIRMENT (4) 16,706 16,706 — OPERATING INCOME 33,366 20,268 53,634 INCOME BEFORE TAXES 27,794 20,268 48,062 TAX EXPENSE 9,567 8,089 17,656 NET INCOME $18,227 $12,179 $30,406 NET INCOME PER DILUTED SHARE $0.25 $0.17 $0.42


 
16 APPENDIX: RECONCILIATION OF YTD 2014 NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES (1) "GAAP" refers to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. (2) Excluded Items consist of charges of $2.3 million related to lease termination and store closure costs and $2.1 million related to the company's profit improvement initiative. (3) Excluded Items consist of charges of $7.5 million of legal, advisory and other costs related to certain corporate governance matters and $3.6 million related to the Company's profit improvement initiative. (4) Excluded Items consist of charges of $6.1 million related to the Gilly Hicks brand. (5) Excluded Items consist of charges of $16.7 million related to stores whose asset carrying value exceeded fair value. (6) Non-GAAP financial measures should not be used as alternatives to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and are also not intended to supersede or replace the company's GAAP financial measures. The company believes it is useful to investors to provide the non-GAAP financial measures to assess the company's operating performance. THIRTY-NINE WEEKS ENDED NOVEMBER 1, 2014 (IN THOUSANDS, EXCEPT PER SHARE DATA) (UNAUDITED) GAAP (1) EXCLUDED ITEMS ADJUSTED NON-GAAP (6) STORES AND DISTRIBUTION EXPENSE (2) $1,257,422 $4,365 $1,253,057 MARKETING, GENERAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSE (3) 339,595 11,125 328,470 RESTRUCTURING CHARGES (4) 6,053 6,053 — ASSET IMPAIRMENT (5) 16,706 16,706 — OPERATING INCOME 21,353 38,249 59,602 INCOME BEFORE TAXES 11,764 38,249 50,013 TAX EXPENSE 4,331 14,193 18,524 NET INCOME $7,433 $24,056 $31,489 NET INCOME PER DILUTED SHARE $0.10 $0.33 $0.43


 


THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS EDITED TRANSCRIPT ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call EVENT DATE/TIME: NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM GMT OVERVIEW: Co. reported 3Q15 net sales of $879m and adjusted non-GAAP net income per diluted share of $0.48. THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.


 
C O R P O R A T E P A R T I C I P A N T S Brian Logan Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - VP, Finance & Controller Arthur Martinez Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - Executive Chairman Jonathan Ramsden Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO Joanne Crevoiserat Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO Fran Horowitz Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, Hollister Christos Angelides Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, A&F and abercrombie kids C O N F E R E N C E C A L L P A R T I C I P A N T S Matthew Boss JPMorgan - Analyst John Morris BMO Capital Markets - Analyst Neely Tamminga Piper Jaffray - Analyst Betty Chen Mizuho Securities - Analyst Gene Vladimirov Nomura Securities - Analyst Kimberly Greenberger Morgan Stanley - Analyst Janet Kloppenburg JJK Research - Analyst Susan Anderson FBR Capital Markets & Co. - Analyst Marni Shapiro The Retail Tracker - Analyst Brian Tunick RBC Capital Markets - Analyst Richard Jaffe Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst Paul Lejuez Citi - Analyst Oliver Chen Cowen and Company - Analyst Lorraine Hutchinson BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst P R E S E N T A T I O N Operator Good day and welcome to the Abercrombie & Fitch third-quarter fiscal year 2015 earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions) At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Brian Logan. Mr. Logan, please go ahead. Brian Logan - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - VP, Finance & Controller Good morning and welcome to our third-quarter earnings call. Earlier this morning we released our third-quarter sales and earnings, income statement, balance sheet, store opening and closing summary, and an updated financial history. Please feel free to reference these materials, which are available on our website. 2 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Also available on our website is an investor presentation, which we will be referring to in our comments during this call. Today's earnings call is being recorded and the replay maybe accessed through the internet at Abercrombie.com under the investors section. The call is scheduled for one hour. Joining me today are Arthur Martinez, Executive Chairman; Jonathan Ramsden, Chief Operating Officer; Joanne Crevoiserat, Chief Financial Officer; Fran Horowitz, Brand President of Hollister; and Christos Angelides, Brand President of A&F and abercrombie kids. After our prepared remarks we will be available to take your questions for as long as time permits. Before we begin I remind you that any forward-looking statements we make today are subject to the safe harbor statement found in our SEC filings. With that I hand the call over to Arthur for some opening remarks. Arthur Martinez - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - Executive Chairman Thank you, Brian, and good morning, everyone. Again, thank you for being with us this morning. Our third-quarter sales and adjusted operating income exceeded expectations coming into the quarter. A number of key metrics turned positive during the quarter, including comparable sales for our Hollister brand and across both our international businesses. This provides the strongest validation yet that our initiatives are taking hold and we are on the right course. In addition, we delivered substantial improvement in our gross margin rate, which resulted in meaningful adjusted operating income growth over last year on a constant currency basis. While there was a benefit from a lower tax rate, the majority of our earnings improvement came from quality growth, resulting from improvements in our sales performance and efficiencies throughout our business. We recognize that we still have much to achieve, particularly in our journey to improve the performance of the Abercrombie brand and, more generally, to drive more robust traffic to our stores and our website. While conversion has been strong, traffic has been challenging. We remain intensely focused on continuing to execute against our strategic initiatives to deliver a compelling customer-focused shopping experience and assortments based on clearly-defined brand positions. We are pleased with our progress, but remain cautious as we move into the fourth quarter given the mixed signals that are coming from the sector. Regardless, we are confident that the work we are doing will continue to provide the foundation for long-term growth and profitability. Now let me hand it over to Jonathan to provide an update on our strategic initiatives. Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO Thanks, Arthur, and good morning, everyone. As Arthur mentioned, our results for the quarter validate that we are on track with our ongoing efforts to turn around our business. Many key indicators turned positive during the quarter and we delivered meaningful adjusted EBIT growth on a constant currency basis for the second consecutive quarter. Of particular note, our European business comped positively for the first time since 2011, with most of our individual stores comping positively. And while the ever-important holiday season is still ahead of us, we are confident that our strategies will support continued progress. With regard to our strategic initiatives, I am just going to give a brief update on a few items today, since we expect to provide a more comprehensive update at the end of the year along with our outlook for 2016. Beginning with customer centricity, we continue to be very pleased with the strong performance of our remodeled Hollister stores. We now have 13 remodeled stores and the group continues to post strong results relative to the control group. In addition, we opened our first two new A&F prototype stores during the quarter and will read the results carefully as we look to expand this concept to more stores. 3 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
On the digital side, we are very pleased with the results from the investments we have made in mobile, which now accounts for approximately 60% of all online traffic and is posting double-digit increases in conversion year over year. We now have close to 3 million cumulative downloads of our mobile apps, and in our ongoing efforts to support the shift to mobile we recently released upgraded iOS and android apps which are getting strong user ratings. In addition, our omnichannel investments are delivering strong returns with order in store contributing significantly to our e-com growth. We look forward to rolling out the capabilities beyond the US and we started in the UK in the third quarter with the launch of Click and Collect in all of our stores there. With regard to e-commerce in general, we continue to see strong growth in China, where we once again did very well on Singles Day generating nearly $2 million in sales. A year into our localization efforts there, we are pleased with the return on our investments driven by both increased traffic and conversion. Looking forward, we will add mobile enhancements in China in 2016, reflecting the already strong mobile penetration in the market. Moving on to our efforts to expand our brand presence, we opened nine full-price stores during the quarter, including our fourth A&F and 12th Hollister stores in China and our fourth Hollister store in Hong Kong. We also opened four new A&F outlet stores in the US during the quarter, which brings us to about 30 new or converted stores with MFO merchandise, mostly A&F. Outlet stores with MFO merchandise continue to perform well with strong four-wall margins. In early 2016, we plan to convert approximately an additional 10 Hollister Outlet stores from liquidation to MFO. Finally, our wholesale business, while still small, continues to grow and is on track to hit our target of $6 million in margin contribution this year. And our licensing business has now expanded to include Fierce in select duty-free locations in the US. Across many areas of our business we see the strategic choices we have made paying off, and as we see a return to health in the core of the business, we have a strong platform to leverage this improved performance. In sum, our results for the quarter reflect good progress on several fronts and give us confidence that the steps we are taking are the right ones. That progress is the result of the efforts of our talented and dedicated associates across the business, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for their efforts. With that, I will hand it over to Joanne to review the third-quarter results. Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO Thanks, Jonathan, and good morning, everyone. After recapping our third-quarter results, I will provide an update on our outlook for the fourth quarter. In the third quarter, as both Arthur and Jonathan mentioned earlier, continued improvement in the comp sales trend, coupled with a higher gross margin rate, resulted in significant growth in adjusted operating income over last year on a constant currency basis. Net sales for the quarter were $879 million, approximately flat to last year on an FX-neutral basis. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates adversely impacted sales by approximately 4 percentage points, or $33 million. Total comp sales were down 1% for the quarter. On a sequential basis, comp sales trends improved broadly from the second quarter, particularly in Hollister and internationally where they turned positive for the quarter. As shown on page 5 of our investor presentation, by brand comp sales were down 5% for Abercrombie and up 3% for Hollister. By category, we continued to see significant comp sales trend improvement in the tops business, particularly within female tops, where comps were strongly positive. And while overall male business lagged female, we saw continued strength in jeans in both genders during the quarter with positive comps across all brands. By geography, comp sales were down 3% in the US and up 1% in international markets. We continued to see considerable improvement in international markets with comps turned positive for the quarter in Europe, driven by conversion with strong customer response to our assortment and pricing adjustments. 4 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Across brands the direct-to-consumer and omnichannel business for the quarter accounted for approximately 21% of total sales, with growth over last year in both our US and international businesses on a constant currency basis. Excluded from our results for the quarter were net pretax charges of $10 million compared to $20 million last year, which are detailed on page 4 of our investor presentation. For the quarter this included $12 million in store asset impairment charges, primarily related to the A&F flagship store in Hong Kong, which has experienced a significant drop in Chinese tourist traffic. This was partially offset by a benefit of $3 million from higher-than-expected recovery on the first-quarter inventory write-down. Adjusted non-GAAP gross margin for the quarter was 63.4%, 120 basis points higher than last year on a reported basis and 210 basis points higher on a constant currency basis. The increase in adjusted gross margin reflected the benefit of lower average unit costs, coupled with higher average unit retail primarily in the US, driven by higher full-price selling and less promotional activity. AUR in international markets was approximately flat on a constant currency basis with higher conversion and full-price selling offsetting price investments in those markets. On an adjusted non-GAAP basis, stores and distribution expense decreased $19 million from last year as the result of benefits from foreign currency as well as expense reduction efforts, partially offset by higher direct-to-consumer expense. On adjusted non-GAAP basis, marketing, general, and administrative expense for the quarter increased $14 million from last year, primarily due to higher compensation-related expenses including the restoration of an accrual for incentive compensation. As previously mentioned, adjusted non-GAAP operating income was above last year on a constant currency basis. The effective tax rate for the third quarter was a benefit of 16%. Excluding certain items, the adjusted non-GAAP effective tax rate for the quarter was an expense of 28%. Both the effective tax rate and the adjusted non-GAAP effective tax rate reflect benefits related to a change in the estimated annual effective tax rate. In addition, the effective tax rate and the adjusted non-GAAP effective tax rate reflect discrete benefit of $10 million and $8 million, respectively, related to the release of a valuation allowance and other discrete tax items. Including these adjustments, for the full year we expect the non-GAAP adjusted effective tax rate to be in the mid to upper 30%s. For the quarter we reported adjusted non-GAAP net income per diluted share of $0.48 compared to $0.42 last year. And as I mentioned a moment ago, our results for the quarter included discrete tax benefits of $8 million, or approximately $0.11 per share. In addition, our results reflect year-over-year adverse effects from FX of approximately $0.13. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $406 million in cash and cash equivalents and gross borrowings outstanding of $297 million, compared to $321 million in cash and cash equivalents and $330 million in borrowing last year. During the quarter we repurchased 2.5 million shares at an aggregate cost of $50 million. We also ended the quarter with total inventory down 3% versus last year, which included a significant increase in inventory in transit due to a floorset shift. Excluding in-transit, inventory was down 10%. Details of our store openings for the quarter are included on page 9 of the investor presentation. At the end of quarter we operated 790 stores in the US and 175 stores in Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. With regard to our outlook for the fourth quarter, we expect comp sales to be approximately flat; continued adverse effects from foreign currency exchange rates; gross margin rate to be approximately flat to last year on a constant currency basis as we begin to anniversary average unit cost reductions from a year ago; operating expense dollars to be approximately flat to last year after absorbing a provision for the restoration of incentive compensation; and a weighted average diluted share count of approximately 68 million shares, excluding the effect of potential share buybacks. In addition, we expect the full-year adjusted effective tax rate to be in the mid to upper 30%s including the benefits related to the valuation allowance release and other discrete tax items recognized through the third quarter. On a going forward basis, we expect the annual effective tax rate to be in the upper 30%s. 5 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Potential charges related to impairment and store closings, our strategic initiatives, and related tax effects are excluded from our outlook for the rest of the year. We also continue to expect capital expenditures for the full year of approximately $150 million. In addition to the 23 new stores we have opened year-to-date, we expect to open eight new stores in the fourth quarter, including six international stores and two North American stores. In addition, we continue to expect to close approximately 60 stores in the US during 2015 through natural lease expirations. I'll now hand it over to Fran and Christos to provide more color around brand performance and strategic initiatives. Fran? Fran Horowitz - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, Hollister Thank you, Joanne, and good morning, everyone. I would first like to thank the Hollister team, both on-campus and in our stores around the world, for their continued dedication, effort, and optimism. We are encouraged by continued improvement in our results. As Joanne noted, we achieved continued sequential comp improvements and a return to positive comps in the third quarter. By geography, we delivered positive comps in each of our key volume regions of the US, Europe, and China. In the US, we are particularly pleased that our comp sales were largely driven by higher AUR, as we continued to reduce our reliance on promotional frequency and depth and continued to benefit from lower levels of clearance inventory. In Europe, we returned to positive comps overall with positive comps in nearly every country. Consistent with last quarter, we continue to see strong conversion driven by our improved assortment and updated pricing architecture. In China, we continued to see comp sales growth. By category, our performance was driven by continued sequential improvement in our assortments for both genders with the largest improvement coming from our girl's tops business. We saw particular strength in our knits business and achieved positive comps across all girl's tops categories. Our girl's denim business remains solid as well. On the guy's side, we achieved modest sequential comp improvement from the second quarter. Our denim and other long bottom businesses remained strong, complemented by a strong sweater and fleece business. Across all categories we are seeing the benefits of the improvements we have implemented around the design, assortment, and buying process. With our back-to-school floorset the customer response to the steps we took to deliver a more thoughtful, on-brand, and balanced assortment. This was evidenced by strong conversion and higher regular price sell-through and resulted in substantial gross margin dollar growth. We also continue to make progress during the quarter on our other strategic initiatives. From a customer messaging perspective, we continue to work with our key social media partners to drive innovation. During the quarter, we partnered with Snapchat to become the first retailer to offer a sponsored geofilter in 19,000 high schools across the US and Canada. We are committed to continuing to find new, innovative ways to engage with our customers. We continue to pilot a loyalty program in several markets across the country with a US rollout planned for 2016. We remodeled eight additional stores during the quarter, five in the US and three in Europe, all of which reopened with a fully-redesigned interior and storefront. We are happy with the initial results, and as Jonathan said, we continue to assess the performance of these stores, which will factor into the rollout plan we are developing for next year. Finally, we continue to strengthen our organization by putting the right people and processes in place to support our continued progress and growth. To close, we continued to make progress in Q3. We have plenty of work to do, but I am confident that we are putting the right people and processes in place to build our business around our customer and a strong, modern brand identity. I will now hand it over to Christos. 6 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Christos Angelides - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, A&F and abercrombie kids Thank you, Fran. Good morning, everyone. Although comp sales declined in the third quarter versus last year, we did deliver continued sequential comp improvement in the Abercrombie brands. The sequential improvement in the adult business was driven by women's and in the kid's business it was driven by boy's. A&F men's underperformed, where we need to do more work to further evolve the assortment and concentrate on newly-designed exciting products. Geographically, we achieved sequential improvement across all three regions of the US, Europe, and Asia. Throughout the quarter we also made progress on reducing our overall discounted ticket across all channels, while still ensuring it remained competitive in a highly-promotional environment. As a result, our margin dollar improvement outpaced the sales improvement for the quarter. During the quarter, we continued to make progress on our strategic initiatives, including increasing our focus on the customer experience. We now have opened a small number of new prototype stores during the quarter that offer improved lighting, an open shopping experience, and a format that allows our store associates to engage with more of our customers. We also continued to enhance our store operating model with programs designed to increase the depth of our associates' product knowledge and support higher levels of autonomy and decision-making within the stores. These initiatives provide further opportunities for the field associates to engage with customers and make decisions that derive from that engagement. Regarding brand reach, we've expanded our wholesale partnerships, launching a small collection of both adult and kids products with next in the UK in early August. Results have been promising. In addition, we executed the rollout of extended sizes for younger ages in our kids business. The entire online assortment and half of the kid's in-store assortment is now available in sizes for children ages three to six. We are encouraged by the results and we will expand this as we move through the fourth quarter. We also featured a select assortment of kid's products on the adult website during the quarter. Results have been positive in both new customer acquisitions and average transaction values. We are also continuing the expansion of kid's stores within the adult space and have opened 13 new locations since early October. Finally, I am pleased to welcome Kristina Szasz as our head designer for women's. She brings nearly 20 years of industry experience to the brand, most recently as design director for denim at Karl Lagerfeld and Tommy Hilfiger at PVH in Europe. We are already seeing the impact of her passion, energy, and enthusiasm within the teams. Indeed, I have been impressed by the attitude and response of all members of the team while we go through this repositioning phase. In closing, while progress has been slower than we had hoped, we believe that the actions we are taking will drive continued sequential sales improvement in the fourth quarter. With that I will turn the call over to Brian. Brian Logan - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - VP, Finance & Controller Thanks, Christos. This now concludes our prepared comments. We will be happy to take your questions. Thank you. 7 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Q U E S T I O N S A N D A N S W E R S Operator (Operator Instructions) Matthew Boss, JPMorgan. Matthew Boss - JPMorgan - Analyst A question for you. As we break down the operating expenses, you pulled out about $400 million from the base the past two years. So as we think about the return to positive comps here, what's the best way to think about potential acceleration of OpEx, any potential buckets of reinvestment to drive the business and the top-line go-forward? Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO Hi, Matt; this is Joanne. In terms of OpEx, we are dedicated to continuing to find efficiency and productivity improvements in the Company. We do believe we have continued opportunities to drive efficiency. The outlook that we provided for Q4, the big drivers of flat dollars on flat sales outlook on comp sales line, are really investments in DTC offset with some continued benefits from FX rates. Within and underneath that there are some investments we continue to make in marketing and, as I said, in DTC and we have found savings to offset those. We will continue to look for productivity improvements as we move forward, but we don't typically comment on those until they are more certain. But we have an effort here in continuous profit improvement that will be ongoing and deliver benefits, we believe, into next year and beyond. Matthew Boss - JPMorgan - Analyst Great. I just had a quick housekeeping follow-up. As we breakdown the fourth-quarter gross margin guide, what would be the puts and takes in terms of AUR, AUC, and FX? And then, just larger picture, what kind of promotional backdrop do you have embedded into the forecast? Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO You hit on the three moving parts in fourth-quarter margin outlook. We are lapping the decreases that began last year in AUC, so we don't see that as a benefit in Q4 as we've seen for the previous three quarters this year. And as it relates to FX, although FX at our current estimates will be abating somewhat in the fourth quarter, we also had benefits from hedging last year that we won't be anniversarying to the same degree. So all-in we expect the FX headwinds to continue to be pretty consistent to what we've seen for the balance earlier this year. In terms of AUR, I think we're -- our outlook includes a realistic expectation for AUR growth given what is shaping up to be a potentially challenging and promotional fourth quarter. Matthew Boss - JPMorgan - Analyst Great, best of luck. Nice quarter. 8 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Operator John Morris, BMO Capital Markets. John Morris - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst Thanks. Congratulations, everybody, on some real nice improvement. I think my first question is picking up on the commentary about -- I think this is for Christos -- the commentary about giving higher levels of autonomy and decision-making in the stores, which I think is interesting. Can you give us a little bit more color on that? Are you going so far in terms of the autonomy extending to product, product positioning, and/or in-store markdowns, or anything along those lines? Could you be considering extending some of that autonomy to the Hollister division as well, if not already? And then my quick follow-up is the plan for marketing changes next year, given the improvement that you are seeing, what are you thinking about in terms of marketing for next year? Could you be putting even a little bit more spend behind that in terms of the marketing positioning, etc.? Thanks. Christos Angelides - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, A&F and abercrombie kids It's Christos. In terms of high level of autonomy, it primarily revolves around the store associate's ability to move product placements in-store. So putting product in positions that we know customers find favorable; best sellers nearer the front of the store, for example, or items that we feel are going to sell very strong in accessible locations. But it also allows associates to change their staffing model up or down, manage queues, and manage the fit rooms. Perhaps more importantly, it means that the associates are motivated to engage with customers. The impacts of that happening in Abercrombie are primarily the same in Hollister as well. John Morris - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst Great. And on the marketing? Fran Horowitz - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, Hollister John, it's Fran. We initiated the same at Hollister. Obviously at the beginning of this year we spoke about putting the customer at the center of everything that we do, and our store initiatives really support that. In addition, we talked earlier about a new incentive plan that we've instituted that has been successful for the associates to really help them understand what is important in their business and the KPIs that drive their business. So for both brands it has been a successful initiative. Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO On the last piece, it's too early to comment on specific marketing expenditure plans or marketing plans more generally for 2016. We're continuing to work through the brand positioning project. We expect to conclude that in the relatively near future and we do think that is going to be a very important component of driving engagement and traffic back into the stores. But it's too early to say exactly how we will communicate that positioning, but that will be an important part of our plans going forward. 9 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
John Morris - BMO Capital Markets - Analyst Thanks, Jonathan. Good luck, everybody, for holiday. Operator Neely Tamminga, Piper Jaffray. Neely Tamminga - Piper Jaffray - Analyst Great, good morning. Congratulations to the whole team. So a couple questions here from us on the holidays. We've noticed in your right in front of the cash rack at Abercrombie you've been bringing in holiday it looks like a little bit earlier this year versus last year. Can you speak to some of the plans there? Are you feeling like you actually have enough inventory for holiday based on what we are seeing? And then, Fran, very specifically on denim, we've noticed that you guys have migrated from $25 denim up to BOGO $50, which seems to take the out-the-door pricing up higher. Would we see this potentially go back down to $25 around Black Friday? Any sort of Black Friday plans you could offer for us would be helpful as we navigate it. Thanks. Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO Neely, I will take the first part. Across the business, We did set a little bit earlier for Christmas this year across both brands; that's just part of the normal cycle of reviewing floor set dates. So you would have seen that in the stores. With regard to the second part of your question, yes, we feel we have appropriate levels of inventory coming into the fourth quarter. I will let Fran take the denim question. Fran Horowitz - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, Hollister On the denim piece for Q3 we did navigate between $25 jeans and BOGO jeans as part of our strategy, which we will continue to do throughout the quarter for Q4. Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO And I think on the last part, we never give forward-looking commentary on our promotional plans. Neely Tamminga - Piper Jaffray - Analyst All right, we will be in the stores. Best wishes out there. Thanks. Operator Betty Chen, Mizuho Securities. 10 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Betty Chen - Mizuho Securities - Analyst I was wondering if you can talk a little bit about what are some of the opportunities for both brands going to holiday season. I know, Fran, you've cited some nice improvements in many of the product categories; knit, denim remain strong. Are there some other opportunities that you feel like are pretty significant callouts year over year? And same thing at the adult A&F brand, Christos. Can we potentially see the men's business start to evolve in the fourth quarter or is that more of 2016? And any sort of the big callouts for women's [opportunities would help, too]. Thanks. Fran Horowitz - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, Hollister Betty, it's Fran. As far as Hollister is concerned, yes, we certainly have seen some very significant improvement, particularly in our girl's tops area consecutively the last few quarters, as well as having a strong denim business, as you mentioned. As we are going to Q4, we believe we will continue to see improvements. Christos Angelides - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, A&F and abercrombie kids In terms of Abercrombie, Betty, I think our Christmas gifting is going to be very important as we go into Christmas and also our sleep collection. Seeing very good initial signs from that area. In terms of the men's in the fourth quarter, I think we will see an improvement but actually the significant change I expect will come in 2016. You may recall we appointed Aaron Levine as the new men's design lead and his collection will start to come in in the new year. I've been very impressed with some of the first ideas I've seen. Betty Chen - Mizuho Securities - Analyst Then can I just follow up in terms of weather? Some other retailers have called out weather being uncooperative so far in the season. How do you feel about your positioning in some of the thicker-weighted items like sweaters and outerwear? I know inventory was clean coming into the quarter, but just curious on some of the cold-weather items. Christos Angelides - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, A&F and abercrombie kids Sort of disappointing, isn't it, when weather doesn't cooperate? Really annoying. (laughter) We are managing -- every week, weather-dependent, there are issues and it's our job to manage those issues. It's not something we talk about on a day-to-day basis, to be honest with you. Our job is to manage all of those conditions. So, yes, we have outerwear; we've got sweaters. In some areas it's light, in some areas it's heavy, but we will have proposals to get through those. Betty Chen - Mizuho Securities - Analyst Great. Congrats on a nice quarter. Best of luck for the holidays. Operator Simeon Siegel, Nomura Securities. 11 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Gene Vladimirov - Nomura Securities - Analyst This is Gene Vladimirov on for Simeon. Congrats on a strong quarter. Can you give us any color on what drove the positive comp internationally and any divergence you may have seen in the trends between Europe and China? And then maybe how you think about the opportunities there going forward? Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO Sure, Gene. I would say it was a broad-based sequential improvement across the international business, across brands, and across channels that we saw, stores and e-com. We gave a couple of data points earlier on. I think if you break it down a little further, we saw strong conversion improvement. The biggest driver of it, which we view very positively, is a reaction to the product and pricing, particularly in Europe. But it was fairly broad-based; there were some countries that were outliers, but overall the improvement was broad-based from the prior quarter. Gene Vladimirov - Nomura Securities - Analyst Then a quick follow-up. Just wondering if we can get some color on the wholesale business, like how big do you see that getting over time and how broad a distribution would you like to see there. Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO It's early days for us on wholesale. We've got these relationships in place today with Next and ASOS, predominantly the UK, although ASOS does serve an international customer outside the UK as well. As we said in the prepared remarks, we are pleased with the progress we've made, its too early to say how significantly that could ramp up over time, but we are certainly happy with what we've seen so far. Gene Vladimirov - Nomura Securities - Analyst Great, thanks. Good luck for holiday. Operator Kimberly Greenberger, Morgan Stanley. Kimberly Greenberger - Morgan Stanley - Analyst Thank you so much. I want to dive a little bit into the average unit cost savings. It sounded like you expect the AUC savings to diminish I guess after the fourth quarter, and I'm wondering if you are thinking about any potential savings in cotton in 2016. Then just a clarification for Joanne. I think payables rose about $106 million year over year, but your inventory fell $16 million, so we were just wondering what the cause of the divergence is. Thanks so much. 12 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO On AUC savings, Kimberly, we have been working to reduce AUC really with product reengineering and have seen the benefit of that for about the past four quarters. We began seeing the benefits in fourth quarter last year. Our outlook takes into account that we're going to be lapping those savings, so we don't expect to see the same AUC savings that we've experienced year-to-date as we come back around. As we move forward, certainly raw material prices are a function of the equation in AUC moving forward. We are also looking at investing back into the product in certain cases, and we will do that on a case-by-case basis where we believe we can get paid for it in terms of AUR growth. In terms of payables, we did make an adjustment in our terms. We have offered supply chain financing for our suppliers to take advantage of and also adjusted our payables terms. In addition, we mentioned the in transit increase year over year related to the floorset shift and that also factored into our payables balance being higher this year. Kimberly Greenberger - Morgan Stanley - Analyst Thank you. Operator Janet Kloppenburg, JJK Research. Janet Kloppenburg - JJK Research - Analyst Congratulations on a nice quarter. Just a couple of questions. You had said that you felt that your fourth-quarter assortments, or your holiday assortments, were really where we should see some major change. You were encouraged about the improvement there. So I'm wondering if you could talk to any improvement you might have seen when those assortments hit the stores in October, maybe give us some idea of how comps trended during the quarter. On the gross margin guidance, you are up against a pretty -- significantly easier comparisons in the fourth quarter than you were in the third quarter. I know the AUC obstacle, but I'm wondering if that just reflects the fact that there's a lot of inventory on hand at your competitors and you're worried about promotional activity or if your promotional plans may be different. If you could help us with understanding that, that would help a lot. Also, Joanne, if you could give us an idea on your outlook for gross margin for the year now. How should that come out? Thanks. Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO Janet, good morning. I will take the first part and then Joanne will take the other part. In terms of improvements in assortment, we typically don't comment on the cadence within a particular quarter. I think we're continuing to make improvements and refinements to the product and we have a level of confidence that we're going to continue to see a return from that. But we can't really comment more specifically than that. 13 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO In terms of margin guidance, I think I spoke to earlier the moving parts that are impacting our guidance. I think the fourth-quarter margin rates reflect, and our outlook reflects, as I said, lapping the AUC increases from a year ago. We do continue to expect FX headwinds. And to your point, we expect that the fourth quarter will be challenging, given some of the commentary we've heard in the sector, some of the inventory levels across the sector. We do feel good about our inventory position, as Jonathan mentioned earlier going into the quarter, but we know the fourth quarter is always a very competitive quarter and that is what our outlook reflects. Janet Kloppenburg - JJK Research - Analyst But FX will be less pressure than in the third quarter, is that correct, Joanne? Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO No, we do see the -- based on what we know today, obviously, and what we can see today in terms of currency exchange rates, we do see it abating somewhat as we start to lap the beginning of the big declines from a year ago, Janet. But we do have hedging benefits that we're up against from last year that we won't be able to anniversary to the same degree. So all-in the FX headwinds we see as pretty consistent as what we've seen for the balance of the year. Janet Kloppenburg - JJK Research - Analyst Okay. Best of luck for a good holiday. Thank you. Operator Susan Anderson, FBR. Susan Anderson - FBR Capital Markets & Co. - Analyst Good morning, thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you could talk about the logo business, maybe the performance that you are seeing in the US and international now that you have brought it back. Was there any impact at all since you are now cycling the exit last year but yet you brought it back? Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO What was the second part of the question? I'll kick it off -- we didn't bring logo back. We brought it down to a level that we thought was appropriate in our assortments, and what we have said is logo will continue to have a place in our assortments. We did see improvement across the tops business in general, particularly in female tops. Logo was a part of that, but improvement that we saw was very broad-based. And on a go-forward basis we are reviewing and evaluating the logo business as we would any other part of our business. I will turn over to Fran for any -- or Christos. 14 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Fran Horowitz - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, Hollister Sure. Just to echo what Joanne said, logo is a piece of our business. We are currently figuring out to what degree it is important, but the customer has voted continuously that they do want logo, both in the US and internationally. As we move forward, we will figure out the appropriate levels but it will be a part of our business. Susan Anderson - FBR Capital Markets & Co. - Analyst Got it. That's helpful. Christos Angelides - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, A&F and abercrombie kids Susan, just quickly from an Abercrombie point of view, I think it's very encouraging that customers are happy to buy product that have got the logo of both brands on the front of it. I think it's a very positive message. Susan Anderson - FBR Capital Markets & Co. - Analyst Great, that's good news. Just one follow-up on the weather question. Is that what is adding your cautiousness around fourth quarter? Is it more just the promotional environment out there? Then maybe if you could just give a little bit more color on how your trends are quarter to date, if it has been impacted by weather. But it seems like from your comp guidance you feel pretty good about the sequential improvement. Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO I wouldn't say that our outlook is specifically related to weather. We believe that it is realistic. Our outlook for fourth quarter is fairly consistent with where we were in August when we provided an outlook for the back half. We have a lot more data points at this point, including both our performance in the third quarter as well as what we're hearing from competitors, and at this point we don't see any reason to be any more bullish on Q4. Susan Anderson - FBR Capital Markets & Co. - Analyst Great, that's helpful. Thank you. Good luck next quarter. Operator Marni Shapiro, The Retail Tracker. Marni Shapiro - The Retail Tracker - Analyst Thanks, guys. Congratulations. And, Fran, I'm so excited about the geo tag at Snapchat. It's my favorite mode of communication. It is, it's so efficient. Fran Horowitz - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, Hollister I'm glad you're enjoying it. 15 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Marni Shapiro - The Retail Tracker - Analyst I have a question about what I'm seeing online and in stores. I spend a lot of time online and a lot of time in stores, and it's very easy to navigate online and find what's new and see what's new. And sometimes you arrive in the stores, both at Abercrombie and at Hollister, and it's not so easy to find the merchandise. And it's not saying that it's specifically online-only goods. I'm curious: is this selling out too quickly in the stores? Is there a way to better connect those dots, or are these things that haven't hit the stores yet or will never -- actually will never hit the stores? Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO Marni, I'm not sure what you're referring to in terms of --. Are you saying it's difficult to locate online-only goods in stores? Is that what you are (multiple speakers)? Marni Shapiro - The Retail Tracker - Analyst No, no, no. This isn't merchandise that is online-only, so it's -- if you shop like a customer and I go online and I will look for things and I'll create lists to go into stores to look for as a customer would. It's been very difficult at your stores over the last couple of months to find these things. And I'm curious, are they not in these stores? Are they sold out? Is it the way the stores are merchandised? I guess the point is: is there a better way to close the loop. If mobile traffic is up so strong; we know she's shopping at home online, isn't the dream to get her into the stores to buy it? But she has to be able to find it. Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO Marni, I think overall there's no generic -- without knowing the specific stores you've got into it's hard to comment on exactly what you've seen. But there's no generic reason why you should be seeing less availability in-store than online of current merchandise. Obviously we do now have pretty good omnichannel capabilities, so if you're looking for a particular item that's not in-store, we do have order-in-store enabled in pretty much in all of our US stores at this point. But maybe we could follow up with you offline about the specific stores you went to and understand that point a little better, because I don't think we're clear on why you would be seeing that. Marni Shapiro - The Retail Tracker - Analyst Right, maybe it is something to follow up offline. To me, it becomes a bit of a disappointment when you come into the stores as a customer and you can't manage to find everything you are looking for. If I could just flip to one other quick question then, if you wouldn't mind. The little kids in the Abercrombie stores, is this helping to drive traffic as well as sales? Christos Angelides - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, A&F and abercrombie kids It is, although it is mixed across several stores that we have. But, in general terms, it is helping to bring into the stores a new customer. I think they're lapsed customers and, in general terms, it is helping to drive the sales, yes. 16 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Marni Shapiro - The Retail Tracker - Analyst Fantastic, great. And I will follow up with you guys offline. Fran Horowitz - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, Hollister Yes, that would be great. Thank you. Marni Shapiro - The Retail Tracker - Analyst Best of luck for the holidays. Operator Brian Tunick, Royal Bank of Canada. Brian Tunick - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst Thanks. Good morning, everyone. I guess two questions, one on the international price adjustments. Have they been rolled out now to all the countries? And were you guys pleased with the four-wall margins or dollars you got from the sales improvement? Did that help offset the AUR declines on the international side? Then the second question. I think on the balance sheet; did we see you guys bought back some stock here in the quarter? Just remind us what your philosophy is there on minimum cash and what are you thinking about for the balance sheet and inventories as we end the year. Thanks very much. Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO Brian, on the international price adjustments, we did roll that out broadly with the back-to-school floorset, so at the end of Q2. It impacted all of Q3. We are pleased with the customer response to those adjustments, both the pricing adjustments and our assortments. As we mentioned our comments, we saw benefit in conversion and return to positive comps in our international business, so we believe that those are -- were well received by the customer. We also mentioned that AUR, on a constant currency basis, is essentially flat in our international markets in the third quarter, which -- with higher full-price selling and mix of business offsetting those price declines. So we are happy with the four-wall margin. Obviously with a flat AUR we were pleased with the margin performance in the international markets overall. As it relates to the balance sheet, we did repurchase shares. Our capital allocation strategies have not changed. Our first priority is to invest in our business in projects that provide the highest risk-adjusted return and then beyond that return excess cash to shareholders through dividend and share repurchase. We make our share repurchase decisions on a quarterly basis based on our liquidity outlook as well as valuation in the market, so we did repurchase shares in the third quarter. As it relates to forward view(on what) our cash targets are; we believe having about $300 million to $350 million in cash on the balance sheet provides the cushion that we need to operate our business. And then from an inventory perspective, we continue to expect inventories to be down as we move through the fourth quarter. 17 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Brian Tunick - RBC Capital Markets - Analyst If I could just throw in one more. On the store closing side, obviously Hollister looks like it's stabilizing here. Has your perspective at all changed on what the right size of the Hollister fleet should be, or how many stores come up for Hollister renewals in the next two or three years? Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO Brian, we still have a very high percentage of our leases up for renewal in the next two or three years, so we have a lot of flexibility. I would say at this point our view has not changed. We've indicated 60 closures across brands this year or something in that order of magnitude, and likely continuing at that pace for the next couple of years. But obviously we continue to review that as we move forward; it's a store-by-store decision ultimately based on the projected economics of each individual store. But at this point I would say no significant change in our outlook there. Operator (Operator Instructions) Richard Jaffe, Stifel. Richard Jaffe - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst Thanks very much, guys. I guess a couple of general questions. The fashion trends that you see working, particularly on the women's side, could you provide a little bit more color on what's working? Then just a follow on, if you could spend a minute on the outlet opportunity. Thank you. Fran Horowitz - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, Hollister From a Hollister perspective, Richard, we have actually had nice reaction to all tops categories. That is inclusive of knits, wovens, and sweaters as well as fleece. So we have had a pretty consistent reaction over the past few quarters and nice comp increases in those categories. As we mentioned in the last call and further today, positive comps for the first time in a very long time and two consecutive quarters of that. The customer is responding very nicely to the product that we are putting out there. Christos Angelides - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, A&F and abercrombie kids From Abercrombie point of view, Richard, I would rather not callout specific fashion trends actually from a competitive sensitivity point of view, other than to say that primarily it's driven in the tops areas in the same respect as Hollister. Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO Richard, just on the outlet side. I would say overall we are taking a balanced approach to outlets. We're certainly pleased with the performance we are seeing in the converted MFO and the new MFO outlet stores. We do anticipate more conversions and openings in 2016, but obviously we are also mindful of the balance between our outlet stores and our full-price stores. So that will continue to be something to which we will pay close attention. 18 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Richard Jaffe - Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst Thank you. Operator Paul Lejuez, Citi. Paul Lejuez - Citi - Analyst Thanks, guys. On the improvement in international, just curious if that was driven more by better sales to local customers or has there been an increase in tourist shopping and spending in some of those locations? Then just secondly, curious about your initial thoughts on CapEx for next year. Thanks, guys. Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO Paul, on the international improvement, most of our business internationally is local, particularly in the mall-based stores. We obviously have some flagship stores in more tourist-based locations. But tourist business in our international business is a relatively small slice of the business overall, so predominantly that improvement has been driven by the local customer. I'll hand over to Joanne for the CapEx question. Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO We are currently evaluating our CapEx budgets and we'll -- I can't report a lot today, but we're in the process of evaluating CapEx budgets in light of a lot of the projects that we have initiated this year; evaluating the performance. And those will all be included in the outlook that we provide at the end of the year. Paul Lejuez - Citi - Analyst Thanks. Jonathan, just to follow-up, can you share the performance of the flagships versus the mall stores internationally? Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO We typically don't get into that level of detail. I would say, in terms of the overall impact of the comp of the flagship and tourist stores, it wasn't a material impact relative to the overall trend of the business. Paul Lejuez - Citi - Analyst Thanks, guys. Good luck. Operator Omar Saad, Evercore ISI. 19 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Unidentified Participant This is actually [Wes Covershed] on for Omar. Can you speak to your online business? I think you said it was up both international and in the US. I know you called out China, but can you speak -- give a little bit more color about the growth in the online? I think that that has been under a little bit of pressure. It seems like it has turned. Thank you. Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO It was up both domestically and internationally. Again, we don't typically parse it out much more than that and we talked in the prepared remarks about strong growth in China as we lapped -- even after we've lapped the localization there. As you probably recall, about a year ago we went to local fulfillment and local translated websites in China and for Asia as a whole, and that gave us a very significant boost to the business, which has obviously also been augmented by the increased store presence, growing brand awareness in the region. Overall we saw growth across domestic and international, strong growth in China, and we typically dont parse it out much more than that. Operator Anna Andreeva, Oppenheimer. Janet Kloppenburg - JJK Research - Analyst Good morning. This is Janet Lynne on for Anna. We were hoping you could speak to some of the changes going on at the A&F brand and any more detail on the prototype remodels. Also, I know at A&F there has been some ongoing adjustments to pricing. If you could speak about the progress of these initiatives and maybe an update on other ways the new leadership is affecting the business. Thanks. Christos Angelides - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, A&F and abercrombie kids In terms of the prototype, Janet, we have opened a couple of stores. They are more open in feel, slightly lighter in terms of the ambience, and we made adjustments to the way that we lay the product out. So far the results are encouraging, but it's very early days. In terms of pricing, pricing really is an ongoing thing that we look at on a continual basis. There's no strategic shift in pricing other than we have to be very mindful of our brand positioning and we have to be competitive. Then in terms of the organizational structure and people, quite a few hires obviously are now embedded in the business and they are all making an impact on the improvements that hopefully we will see in the brand next year. Janet Kloppenburg - JJK Research - Analyst Okay, great. If I could just sneak in a follow-up; I know you said traffic has been a challenge. What do you think -- I guess was with traffic stronger at A&F versus Hollister? Or what were your trends versus the mall? 20 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO I think we were commenting on obviously across US retail in general mall traffic has been challenging. I don't think that is any breaking news, and that is something we have certainly experienced as well. In general, the improvement we've seen in our business has been from conversion rather than traffic so it's important for us going forward to start to drive more robust traffic, as Arthur alluded to in the opening comments. Janet Kloppenburg - JJK Research - Analyst Great, thank you so much. Operator Oliver Chen, Cowen and Company. Oliver Chen - Cowen and Company - Analyst Congrats on solid results. We just wanted to ask you regarding the balance of the assortment between some of the attractive price point essentials versus novelty; how do you feel about the evolution of that? Also, regarding the apparel execution, I'm just curious about how the integration has been amongst the categories as you become more and more of an outfitting, whole picture destination. Just wanted your thoughts there, thank you. Christos Angelides - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, A&F and abercrombie kids Like you say, the balance of the assortment is an evolution. It's a continual process and it's something we change on a reactionary basis to what customers need. Essentials is a very important part of the mix, but so is more improved and a higher design content product. So all I can say really, Oliver, is that it's something that is a continual process. Fran Horowitz - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, Hollister From the Hollister perspective, it's part of our good/better/best pricing strategy and we are currently finding success, both with our entry level with the must-haves as well as our fashion offerings. It has been a nice balance between the two. Oliver Chen - Cowen and Company - Analyst Okay. And women's tops, it's really impressive that you've had good momentum there. What's next for that category? And is this early innings of this positive response that you are seeing? Fran Horowitz - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - President, Hollister We, too, are encouraged by the positive response. Clearly, as we've discussed several times today, our conversion has been up significantly, domestically and internationally, which signals that the customer likes what we're putting out there. And we'd like to believe that that will continue. Oliver Chen - Cowen and Company - Analyst Thank you, best regards. 21 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
Operator Lorraine Hutchinson, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Lorraine Hutchinson - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst Thank you, good morning. Joanne, just looking at where currency rates are today and also taking into account your hedging, what kind of pressure do you expect on both the top line and the gross margin for next year? Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO Lorraine, some of that remains to be seen as we move through the quarter, but what we can see today: from a top-line perspective we do see the FX pressure abating, but still being a headwind, so abating from what we've seen in the prior few quarters. However, as you mentioned, the hedging benefits -- we had larger hedging benefits last year in the fourth quarter as we were just stepping into these rate declines that we don't expect to anniversary. So on the margin line we expect the FX headwinds to be very consistent with what we've seen for the prior quarters, but on the top line abating somewhat. Jonathan Ramsden - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - COO In the fourth quarter. Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO In the fourth quarter, right. Lorraine Hutchinson - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst Then as we move through next year, when do you expect that margin headwind to abate? Joanne Crevoiserat - Abercrombie & Fitch Co. - EVP & CFO There is obviously a big dependency on the exchange rates, so based on -- however, we do have some hedging benefit that we experienced pretty much throughout the year this year that we'll be up against next year. So obviously very much dependent on where the currency rates and how they move through the year, but we have a known headwind on the hedging benefits from this year going into next year. Lorraine Hutchinson - BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst Thank you. Operator That does conclude our question-and-answer session and that is all the time that we have for today's conference call. We thank you for your participation. 22 THOMSON REUTERS STREETEVENTS | www.streetevents.com | Contact Us ©2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. 'Thomson Reuters' and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 20, 2015 / 1:30PM, ANF - Q3 2015 Abercrombie & Fitch Co Earnings Call


 
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