Teen retailer Abercrombie & Fitch said Friday that its first-quarter earnings rose 3 percent from a year ago on stronger sales.Abercrombie said it earned $62.1 million, or 69 cents per share, in the three months ended May 3 compared with profits of $60.1 million, or 65 cents a share, a year ago. Sales rose 8 percent to $800.1 million from $742.4 million last year.

But sales at stores open at least a year, considered a key indicator of a retailer's strength, fell 3 percent in the quarter.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected profits of 66 cents a share on sales of $810 million. The earnings estimates typically exclude one-time items.

"Despite a tough selling environment, we produced bottom-line growth while still remaining true to the aspirational positioning of our brands," Abercrombie & Fitch Chairman and CEO Mike Jeffries said in a statement.



The company on Friday reaffirmed that it expects earnings for the first half of its 2008 fiscal year to come in within a range of $1.61 to $1.65 per share, representing a 5 to 8 percent increase from a year ago.

Abercrombie last week announced that it will add a second flagship store in Europe, opening a store in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009. Abercrombie already has a store in London and says it is securing locations for stores in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden. The company plans to open a store in Tokyo in late 2009.

Abercrombie, based in this Columbus suburb, operates approximately 1,000 stores under the names Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie for children, Hollister Co., Ruehl and Gilly Hicks.

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On the Net: http://www.abercrombie.com

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