Hollister Co. facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Hollister Co.

Type	Division
Industry	Retail
Founded	July 27, 2000; 24 years ago (2000-07-27)
Headquarters	New Albany, Ohio , U.S.
Number of locations	541
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Fran Horowitz (CEO) of Abercrombie & Fitch)
Products	Apparel accessories fragrances
Parent	Abercrombie & Fitch

Hollister Co., often advertised as Hollister or HCo., is a retail brand owned by Abercrombie & Fitch Co, selling apparel, accessories, and fragrances. Goods are available in-store and through the company's online store. Hollister says it was founded in 1922 in Hollister, California; however, it was founded in 2000 in Ohio by Abercrombie.

History

Establishment

The first Hollister store opened on July 27, 2000 at the Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio. Four additional test stores opened following in Overland Park, Kansas, Buford, Georgia, Canoga Park, California, and Paramus, New Jersey.

Although Hollister Co. was founded in 2000, Abercrombie & Fitch has created a fictional history surrounding its founder. According to this history, John Hollister, Sr. emigrated from New York City to the Dutch East Indies, and established the company bearing his name upon returning to the United States and settling in California in 1922. However, the company was actually founded in Ohio in 2000. A&F spokesperson Hampton Carney stated about Hollister, "We’re not going after the ‘core surfing market. It's more about the lifestyle and inspiration, rather than the actual activity."

From international expansion to today

Hollister shop in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. expanded into Canada in mid-January 2006 with the opening of Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister Co. stores in Toronto, Ontario.

Starting summer 2007, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. spent an approximate amount of US$10 million to install video walls into Hollister Co. stores nationwide to play live-feeds from Surf City Huntington Beach, California. Hollister pays the city of Huntington Beach for the cameras located on the Huntington Beach Pier. By October 2, 2007, 100 select Hollister California stores began to promote Abercrombie & Fitch Co.'s fifth brand Gilly Hicks prior to the latter's debut in January 2008. Advertising was achieved through a variety of body care items including body sprays, deodorant, soaps, lotions, and lip balms called Sessions.

A Hollister tee shirt

On October 25, 2008, Hollister Co. opened its first store outside of the North America in Brent Cross, London. In December 2008, Hollister Co. opened its second store in the UK in Westfield London and a third at the upmarket Bluewater shopping centre, Kent, UK. After the success of the UK HCo. stores in London, the first Hollister store outside London was opened on May 14, 2009 in WestQuay Shopping centre in Southampton, its fifth UK store was opened in Milton Keynes at the beginning of 2010. Hollister Co. has also opened stores in Italy, Germany, China, Japan, and more recently in Spain. In 2011, Hollister opened its first store in Dublin, Ireland in the Dundrum Town Centre.

Marketing for the HCo. flagship launched in May 2009. The marketing campaign advertised the store as "The Epic Hollister Store." A&F launched a website that offered electronic postcards, downloadable wallpaper and screensaver as well as directions to the flagship and a promotional film with computer-generated graphics of the multi-level floor layout and design. A countdown timer called the "Epic Countdown" told the remaining time down to seconds until opening. The first flagship for the HCo. brand opened July 16, 2009.

Stores

Side view of the Hollister storefront in the Sunvalley Mall, Concord, California, with the beach shack entrance

Abercrombie & Fitch originally designed Hollister Co. stores to simulate the appearance of vintage beach shacks in an indoor shopping mall. Exterior décor included shuttered windows and light and dark brown pattern walls. A teal boardwalk with three steps leads to the entrance. The interior of the store is mostly concealed from outside view by a wall. Abercrombie & Fitch experimented with shuttered windows when they created Hollister Co. and the concept was eventually expanded to the Abercrombie & Fitch brand.

Hollister store at the King of Prussia mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania with the new storefont

The Hollister Co. store at West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, showing the beach shack style storefront and the new current storefront in The interior of the store retains the beach shack style today.

In November, Abercrombie & Fitch announced plans to redesign Hollister stores. The new design includes front windows and eliminates the California beach shack front porch entrance. The stores are smaller in square footage, but feature a larger merchandise area. as of January, some of the beach shack stores with stairs had been renovated and brand new constructed stores feature the redesign.

Front view of a Hollister store in Leeds. This is the new Hollister store design.

Following the drop in mainstream popularity, stores moved away from the dark environment and loud music, opting for a more customer-friendly experience by turning on the ceiling lights during opening hours and lowering the volume of the music.

Flagship store

The company opened the first flagship store for the Hollister concept 16 July 2009. The flagship was located in SoHo, New York, on Broadway. Four floors of the occupied building provide a retail space of 40,000 square feet (3,700 m²). A company flagship representative commented, "The EPIC store is what Hollister is all about—big waves, surf, sun, and hanging out on the pier. The laidback HCo. vibe is effortlessly cool, and we're bringing the SoCal lifestyle to SoHo." Out of the total capital expenditures for fiscal 2008 of A&F Co. (up to 445 million USD), approximately US$300 million was spent on new store construction and remodeling, including the HCO flagship. The Hollister flagship store in SoHo closed .

See also

In Spanish: Hollister Co. para niños