When Abercrombie & Fitch came to the UK in 2007 it was one of the coolest and most anticipated brands of its time.

When Abercrombie & Fitch came to the UK in 2007 it was one of the coolest and most anticipated brands of its time.

The preppy US chain opened its London flagship behind Regent Street to great hype and tourists can still be seen today queuing to have their picture taken with the topless, toned model who mans the door.

In America for many years it was the brand to be seen in and the “Abercrombie look” was one of the major fashion trends that all young people wore – in some places the only look that anyone wore.

In the last few years however the shine has started to come off and this year A&F found its like-for-like store sales plummeting in its domestic market and profits falling off a cliff.

Internationally it is still expanding and still growing sales and it is this part of the business that the management team see as its “future”.

Competition in the UK, however, is strong. The Hollister stores that A&F is rolling out nationwide are unique and draw attention but the preppy look that it sells is being sold in many other places with the likes of Jack Wills really attracting attention — particularly amongst younger customers — with great social media activity as well as much sought-after products.

As with any trend, it can’t last forever. A&F bosses admitted this week that they needed to look at making its ranges more fashion forward – but do so in its own handwriting.

The novelty of having A&F and Hollister here will at some point wear off- as it seems to have done in the States. The price points are also still quite high –higher in fact in the UK – and its reluctance to discount really hurt it in the US through a very difficult period where value won over.

It also admitted it had to learn how to do promotions well to attract customers without giving in to full blown discounting for long periods of time which could really hurt the brand.

Pretty staff dancing around heavily perfumed stores to booming music again was different but can be distracting and off putting to some customers.

A&F has to stop resting just on its name and produce different must-have pieces that go beyond one type of look to bring in new customers and inspire current ones.

This applies both at home and abroad and how to keep A&F cool- beyond semi-naked staff at the door - will be a real challenge and hopefully one it can rise to.