Abercrombie & Fitch Names Chief Merchandising Officer, Will Name Brand Presidents

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. named Fran Horowitz chief merchandising officer, a newly-created role at the company, effective immediately. The company said she will be responsible for merchandising, design, planning, and other consumer-facing duties at all of the company's brands, which includes Abercrombie & Fitch, Abercrombie Kids and Hollister Co. Horowitz joined the company in Oct. 2014 as Hollister brand president. She was previously brand president at Ascena Retail Group Inc.'s at Ann Taylor Loft business. Christos Angelides, Abercrombie & Fitch brand president since Oct. 2014, has left the company. The company is "on track to deliver continued sequential improvement in comparable sales and achieve the profit expectations we had coming into the quarter," said Arthur Martinez, executive chairman of Abercrombie & Fitch, in a statement. Abercrombie shares, which are up 4.8% for the past month, are down 10.8% for the year so far. The S&P is down 1.8% for the year-to-date.