Case 30 — Abercrombie & Fitch · Fran Horowitz · 2017

The name is famous and toxic. Do you sell the company, go back to the teenager, or keep the name and change who it is for?

You have been chief executive for three months. The company you run was the most desirable brand in the American mall fifteen years ago and was named its least-liked retailer last year. Revenue has fallen from about $4.5B to $3.3B in four years. The previous chief executive's line that 'a lot of people don't belong' in the clothes is the first thing anyone says about the brand. The logos were removed from the product in 2014 and sales fell anyway. Hollister, the cheaper teen brand you used to run, is holding up; Abercrombie is not. The shares are in the low teens, the board has taken calls from American Eagle and two private-equity firms, and the flagship stores on Fifth Avenue and Savile Row are bleeding rent.

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