Abercrombie & Fitch does not grow its business in Spain, quite the contrary. The American multinational sees how its income and its profit are reduced rapidly in the Spanish market. In the 2015 financial year (which closed on January 31 of that year), its result plummeted by more than 80%. The subsidiary only earned 194,000 euros. A figure that is far from the 1.06 million euros that it achieved a year earlier, according to the latest accounts that it has sent to the Mercantile Registry.

The company is still new in Spain. He opened his first location less than six years ago. It did so at a difficult time, in the midst of a slowdown in spending and commercial activity as a result of the economic crisis. It did not make its first move in Spain with its main brand but with Hollister, focused on a younger audience than its 'older sister'.

A year later, he disembarked with his flagship, under the Abercrombie banner that gives the group its name. She opened in a palace with a million-dollar rent (1.32 million euros per year) in the Plaza del Marqués de Salamanca in Madrid. Thus, it was located at one end of what is considered the 'golden mile' of the capital, Ortega y Gasset Street, where all the luxury brands are located (Valentino, Chanel, Hermès, Tiffany's...). It is a building built in the 19th century, known as Palacete Villota, devised by the architect Joaquín Saldaña and which was previously the headquarters of the Andalusian company Aguas de Sevilla.

Today, the group has a dozen stores in Spain. Almost all of them, eleven, correspond to Hollister. Choose to locate this brand in shopping centers and not in stores at street level, such as Abercrombie. Those 12 stores had a turnover of 40.7 million euros in 2015, six million euros less than the previous year.

One of the most significant aspects of the evolution of Abercrombie & Fitch in Spain is the severe cut in the number of employees. In one year, it has reduced its average workforce from 1,234 to 969 people. A measure that is not explained in the report and that is reflected in a reduction in its personnel costs, which fell from 11.4 to 8.8 million euros. He does recognize the closure of a store, in January 2015: the one in the Marineda City shopping center, in La Coruña.

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The Spanish subsidiary does not depend directly on the United States, but on Switzerland. There is the headquarters of Abercrombie & Fitch Europe, which manages the group's European businesses. One of his main expenses is the rent he pays for his stores. At the end of the year, it had leases in Spain for a value of more than 24.7 million euros.

Regarding his payments to the Treasury, during the past year he assumed a profit tax of almost 160,000 euros. A year earlier, he paid the treasury almost 0.8 million. It also keeps taxes from the last five years open to possible tax inspection.

She is studying moving to the center

Abercrombie's business is not taking off and the multinational has already considered giving a turn to its strategy and its location. One of the options that he is considering is to move to the center, to the heart of the capital Madrid. Analyze their landing at the Canalejas Complex. The megaproject, which is run by the Villar Mir group, will occupy the old Madrid headquarters of the Central Hispano, Banesto and Zaragozano banks, at the confluence of Alcalá streets, Carrera de San Jerónimo and Canalejas square itself.

When its doors open, expected at the end of next year, it will have the first Four Seasons hotel in the capital, luxury homes and commercial space of nearly 16,000 square meters. That is where Abercrombie is considering leaving, to take advantage of the pull of tourism and the commercial focus that stores such as Apple, in the heart of Puerta del Sol, or Primark, on Gran Vía, have brought.

Change in global strategy

But what is happening in Spain is not an isolated case. The multinational also sees how its global business has been shrinking in recent years. Its net result has more than halved in just two years. It went from earning 235 million dollars in the 2013 financial year to 96 million in 2015. Its sales have also gone down. He sealed his best moment in 2013, when he billed 4,510 million dollars. Last year saw that figure drop to 3,744 million.

The decline can be attributed to post-crisis changes in fashion consumption, where low-cost brands such as Primark are gaining ground. But, in the case of the North American multinational, there is also a business marked by controversy and the statements of who was its top manager. “Our clothes are not for everyone, nor can they be. Are we exclusive? Of course," said his former CEO Mike Jeffries, in an interview that cost him his job, in December 2014.

Since then, the company has changed its creative director and tries to leave behind the controversy of its dependent models. Aaron Levine, now in charge of design, is committed to giving less importance to the firm's 'logo', which disappears from some clothing collections. In this way, it pursues a different client but keeps its prices above other rivals. He wants to revitalize the banner, bringing it closer to the line that other American firms such as GAP have set, which, precisely, has just landed in Spain with its first commercial spaces within El Corte Inglés. Time will tell if the changes are enough for Abercrombie & Fitch takes flight.

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