IN WHAT IS becoming the post-flagships openings era for leading international expansion efforts for the Abercrombie & Fitch brand, we are now experiencing the rise of overseas mall-based premium locations. The first international stores did technically open in Canada back in 2006, though those were merely an extension of the A&F chain format from the United States on into the greater North American market. Overseas expansion took off with the entrance into the European and Asian markets in 2007 and 2009, with A&F London and A&F Tokyo, respectively, and now the Company (well into the 2010s and in a markedly different world at large) is making those regional markets' primary robust economies the ground for its first overseas mall shops – China, which will be opening its first of such at the Chengdu IFS, and now Germany in CentrO Oberhausen...
The Abercrombie & Fitch community well knows of the CentrO shopping center as having been most famously the host of the first and only Gilly Hicks store – opened on 8 December 2011 – in continental Europe, and it was the last GH location to close in the chain this year. Well, the Company made the decision to convert the retail unit at CentrO into Europe's first Abercrombie & Fitch mall-based shop.
Although a pragmatic choice in part of the Company, the development of opening such an A&F location at CentrO is considerably susceptible to eyebrow raising. Crestfallen will be the British fan who has been expecting to have the first for a mall-based overseas A&F since the London opening; Abercrombie's presence there has been greater and furthermore reasonable premium expansion in the United Kingdom is long overdue. However, in Germany, while the fans there can rejoice, the decision to plop the shop in Oberhausen – what various Germans across the board consider an unappealing rural place (to sum-up their words politely) with CentrO as the only thing to do there – is mixed with subtle sentiments that it's not most ideal, at least, for a new retail endeavor (the same opinion they have over having introduced Gilly Hicks there in the first place). Nevertheless, CentrO itself is a great, wonderful attraction on the Continent; it is located in Nordrhein-Westfalen – the country's state with the highest GDP and at the heart of the "European megalopolis" – and is among the biggest of mall's in the EU and boasts popular European and international brands.
Hiring process for A&F CentrO Oberhausen has now been ongoing, and this latest FIERCE gift to Germany – reportedly around 500sqm (about 5,400sqft) – is still under wraps for now...
Joining its Hollister Co. sibling only a walk away, A&F CentrO Oberhausen opens doors this fall...
Stay FIERCE!
P.S. In July, Abercrombie & Fitch also opened its first outlet store locations in Germany at Wolfsburg Designer Outlets (in the state of Lower Saxony/Niedersachsen) and the more elusive Zweibrücken Style Outlets (in the state Rhineland-Palatine/Rheinland-Pfalz).
Image in this post by Erik94 of Neu Eröffnungen.
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