Black month for American fashion chains

The financial crisis continues to grip the American retail industry. Major clothing companies were forced to record massive sales declines in September. Due to economic uncertainties, consumers have become increasingly weary of spending money for months. While low-priced discount stores such as Wal-Mart benefit from the situation by recording solid growth, the sales of major clothing chains are slumping significantly.

For example, the fashion chain Gap Inc. was hit hard. As the company group reported on Thursday, the sales in September decreased by 6 percent from 1.43 to 1.34 billion US dollars compared to the previous month. On comparable area, they dropped by a whopping 11 percent. While the area-adjusted sales decline for Gap North America (-3 percent) and Banana Republic (-4 percent) remained within manageable range, the Old Navy brand reported a substantial loss of 24 percent. Gap was only able to post a small surplus of 3 percent on comparable area in the international sales. During the first eight months of the year, the sales of the company group decreased by 5 percent from 9.85 to 9.36 billion US dollars. The area-adjusted decline was 10 percent. By implementing comprehensive cost reductions, Gap was able to present at least a satisfactory result in the end, despite the downward trend.

The situation for the trend label Abercrombie & Fitch is equally poor. The fashion clothing company group with the same name also reported on Thursday that their sales declined by 7 percent in September, down from 297.4 to 275.4 billion US dollars. On comparable area, the sales dropped by a whopping 14 percent. With a loss of 7 percent, the main brand Abercrombie & Fitch got off reasonably lightly. In contrast, the other lines, i. e. abercrombie (-20 percent), Hollister Co. (-20 percent) and Ruehl (-24 percent) experienced a downright crash. Mike Jeffries, CEO and president of the board of the company group justified the horror figures with the "extraordinary macroecological emergency situation". He warned that the profit per share in the second half of the year is expected to fall significantly short of the current forecast.

Moreover, the Limited Brands, i. e. the parent company of the lingerie chains La Senza and Victoria's Secret also recorded a decline in sales for September: on Wednesday, they reported a decline in sales from 713.2 to 673.4 million US dollars. On comparable area, the loss was approximately 6 percent. Photo: Shopping