Abercrombie & Fitch Co. on Thursday revealed a partnership with Haddad Brands to expand the global reach of its abercrombie kids brand.
Haddad is a New York-based, privately held, family business specializing in children’s apparel and accessories and is the exclusive global licensee for Nike, Jordan, Converse, Hurley, Levi’s, Polo, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Huggies childrenswear. Haddad indicated that it distributes to more than 100 countries and operates sales and sourcing offices in 22 locations globally, including New York, Paris, Hilversum, Shanghai, London, Montreal, Bangkok, Egypt, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
“As we work to diversify A&F Co.’s channel mix and drive sustainable, profitable growth, we are thrilled to partner with Haddad Brands to build on our success and create an opportunity to grow the brand in the years ahead by engaging with new customers globally,” Fran Horowitz, A&F’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Within the agreement, A&F will continue to design, produce and sell abercrombie kids in its owned-and-operated channels as it does today. The partnership with Haddad Brands will focus on creating distribution channels for the brand and growing the product line by adding infant and toddler categories to the existing assortment for 5- to 14-year-olds. Haddad has a team involved in the design, sourcing, production, sales, marketing and distribution of childrenswear. The partnership marks the first time that abercrombie kids will be sold at non-Abercrombie stores in different countries.
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The new distribution is expected to begin next year. The fall/back-to-school 2025 season of abercrombie kids will be available in Haddad Brands’ showrooms globally in September.
Jack Haddad, president of Haddad Brands, said in a statement, “Our seamless collaboration gives us great confidence that the abercrombie kids product will continue to resonate with consumers globally. We look forward to extending the abercrombie kids brand, making the product available to more consumers in the United States and worldwide.”
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. has been on a roll, recently demonstrating particular strength in the Americas and with its Abercrombie brand, which includes Abercrombie for adults and abercrombie kids. The company posted a solid first quarter this year, marked by sales and profit gains that exceeded Wall Street expectations. It was the sixth straight quarter of gains for the operator of the Abercrombie, abercrombie kids, Hollister and Gilly Hicks brands.
Whether A&F seeks further novel ways to bolster its distribution across its portfolio remains to be seen.
The company operates more than 750 stores across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, as well as the abercrombie.com and HollisterCo.com e-commerce sites.
