Abercrombie & Fitch to close sole Singapore outlet in May
AMERICAN fashion brand Abercrombie & Fitch will be closing its only outlet in Singapore on May 2, it said in an Instagram post on Monday.
The post directed shoppers to download the mobile app to continue shopping.
No reason was given for the closure, but Abercrombie & Fitch announced last November that it would be closing several flagship stores. The locations given at the time were Dusseldorf, London, Munich, Paris, Brussels, Madrid and Fukuoka.
The Singapore flagship store opened at Knightsbridge Mall on Orchard Road in December 2011. It occupies 21,000 square feet over four floors in the mall, and employed about 800 employees at the time.
The mall landlord, Bright Ruby Resources, declined to comment when The Business Times asked about its plans for the space after Abercrombie & Fitch vacates it.
Abercrombie & Fitch reported a 14 per cent decline in net sales to US$3.1 billion for the financial year ended Jan 30, 2021. The company closed a total of eight flagship stores and 129 non-flagship locations, accounting for 17 per cent of its square footage, during the period under review. (see correction note)
The apparel brand courted fanfare and controversy here with its advertising and hiring choices even before the Knightsbridge store opened. Singaporeans were outraged by a racy advertisement that appeared on the building in October 2011, featuring a 12m-high topless shot of a male model in low-slung jeans.
The advertisement was suspended after the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (ASAS) objected to it. However, because the billboard was put up by Abercrombie & Fitch itself and not by a media owner or advertiser in the ASAS council, the latter was not able to enforce the decision to remove it. The retailer itself took it down shortly after the suspension.
People also took issue with the brand's well-known policy of hiring store workers based on their physical attractiveness. Abercrombie & Fitch stopped doing so in 2015, saying it would no longer use "sexualised marketing" as well.
Additional reporting by Lynette Tan
Read more:
- Naiise goes into liquidation; founder to file for bankruptcy
- Rising rents, tighter financing put pressure on retailers' cash flow
- Abercrombie & Fitch willing to walk away from any mall to shrink footprint
Correction note: A previous version of this article provided an incorrect figure for Abercrombie & Fitch's net sales for FY2020.
