There's a BIG difference between "opening 1000 stores" and "beginning to open 1000 stores."

Opening 1000 of any kind of store by next January would not only be impossible, but monumentally stupid.

Think about it - the average cost of building and stocking a new A&F, aKids, or HCo store is around $800,000. You can safely assume that the costs to open a GH will be similar. Multiply that by 1000 stores and you are easily talking about $800 million dollars. And remember... A&F still has four other brands to run.

I don't remember hearing any solid capex guidance last quarter, but I'm pretty sure Kramer hinted at a 2007 number of around $350 million for the entire company... and there's only around $400 million in cash on the balance sheet. A&F isn't going to drop a billion dollars on anything in one year.

I would expect GH to start at a pace similar to what HCo did... and that's if initial results are good. HCo exceeded expectations when it was launched, but still only opened around 90 stores in the first two years.

maybe all these $40 tshirts and $500 jeans will help pay for the 1,000 store rollout.

honestly i dont care for the name and the thought of an intimate store for women and men is kind of hot! as it is abercrombie has awesome trunk underwear. and when hollister came out with their boxer briefs i was happy. i have never been to ruehl so i am not sure if they sell any trunk underwear. sorry i prefer trunk underwear than regular boxer briefs. quick question does anyone own abercrombie briefs? because they really don't look like briefs online they sort of look like the length of trunks...would like to know whoever owns any thanks

I don't think they are briefs. I went in the store and looked for them, but it had a different name. I even asked the workers and they said they didn't have the "low rise briefs". I think the guy who did the website put in a wrong name

mj's on crack if he really is going to do this this fast.

I'd laugh if Gilly Hicks was a flop.

If the person listening to the conference call had really been listening carefully he would have known that Jan 2008 is the time that the first store will open, and from there out they expect it to be extremely successful eventually getting to maybe 1000 stores, and they also expect a buildout on Ruehl of about 250 stores.

hmm... so you heard the conference call tooooo?!

I think we need a copy of this conference call.

Anyone know anything about the marketing/music/environment?

to set the record straight?

ahh like o..m.g...

everyone just chill and wait for it...

haha

There is no way in hell that Ruehl will ever hit 250 stores, I don't even see it going over 50. and GH would also never open 1000 stores, not even the whole company combined has 1000

ruehl could make 100 if they tried. but not any more than that.

gh...no way for 1000. that's more than the current number of vs in the world. i think. maybe 500.

There are currently 1003 VS stores.

they had an investor conference on january 11th- http://library.corporate-ir.net/libr...anf_011107.pdf.
on slide 8 estimates are listed for current US store potential, slide 9 says 2008 for A&F stores in asia, and if you listen to the audio call Mike Kramer says that the first store of the new concept will open January 2008 and they expect it to be extremely successful

thanks. yeah, there's no way gh could do that unless it was more successful than Victoria Secret. even hollister doesn't have that many stores.

Conference calls are designed to reassure investors, so they always put an incredibly positive spin on things. They acknowledge some minor weaknesses but emphasize what they want you to hear, that things are great. Despite the fact that Ruehl is nowhere near what they had hoped, it's going "great." So take anything said on there with a grain of salt.

This is what Abercrombie.com says about its stores:

354 Abercrombie & Fitch stores
164 abercrombie stores
357 Hollister stores
10 Ruehl stores
885 total stores across 4 brands. (8/14/2006)

Wanna see it, click the link at the bottom of the page ---> Diversity ---> History ---> Today.

^ i think it's about 910 stores as of now.