A&F planning UK expansion

American retailer Abercrombie & Fitch is plotting a major expansion in the UK. Mike Jeffries, the retailer's chief executive, said last week that the company is "aggressively pursuing" real estate in Europe and Japan to open outlets for its existing Abercrombie & Fitch business and its fledgling Hollister teenage brand.

Abercrombie & Fitch's London store is expected to have similar sales densities to the retailer's United States flagship store on New York's 5th Avenue. That shop has become something of a phenomenon in Manhattan, with its bare-chested male models, loud music and low lighting. The London store is likely to give staid retailers in nearby Savile Row a shock." We get asked by big malls to turn our music down the whole time. We do and then we turn it back up an hour later," Jeffries said at a recent conference in London.