Hollister Co., often advertised as Hollister or HCo., is a global teen and young adult retail brand owned by Abercrombie & Fitch. Goods are available in-store and through the company's online store. In 2019, Piper Jaffray ranked it in the top five clothing brands among teenagers.
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 the Easton location: at Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, Kansas, Mall of Georgia in Buford, Georgia, Westfield Topanga in Canoga Park, California, and Paramus Park in Paramus, New Jersey.
Hollister Co. does not bill itself as a hardcore surf line. According to A&F spokesperson Hampton Carney, "We’re not going after the core surfing market. It's more about the lifestyle and inspiration, rather than the actual activity." 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. In actuality, the company was founded in Ohio in 2000.
From international expansion to today[]
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. expanded into Canada in mid-January 2006. A&F opened Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister Co. stores at the Toronto Eaton Centre and Sherway Gardens shopping malls in Toronto, Ontario. These openings were delayed from the end of 2005 to early 2006 by construction and planning issues. As of 2009, HCo. locations in Canada were: Sherway Gardens, Toronto Eaton Centre, and Fairview Mall in Toronto, the West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta, and Upper Canada Mall, in Newmarket, Ontario, and Pacific Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia as of January 29, 2009. In 2010, the store's eighth location in Canada opened at Polo Park in Winnipeg, and a store opened on October 29, at Fairview Park Mall in Kitchener, Ontario. In 2011, the first Hollister store in Atlantic Canada opened at the Halifax Shopping Center in Halifax. Stores also opened in Hamilton, Ontario and Brampton, Ontario in 2011.
Starting summer 2007, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. spent an approximate amount of US$10 million to install video walls into Hollister Co. stores nationwide. The walls play live-feed from Surf City Huntington Beach, California to provide customers with a flavor of the SoCal surf atmosphere HCo. promotes. 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 a sneak peek of Abercrombie & Fitch Co.'s fifth brand Gilly Hicks Sydney 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 (now called Prep).
On October 25, 2008, Hollister Co. opened its first store outside of the U.S. and Canada 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. Further more, 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. There are also Hollister stores in Sheffield's Meadowhall shopping centre, Norwich's Chapelfield shopping center, Birmingham's Bull Ring, Manchester's Trafford Centre mall, Solihull's Touchwood Centre and Newcastle upon Tyne's Eldon Square. There are also stores in Westfield Stratford city, in the Oracle shopping center in Reading, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Victoria Square, Belfast as well. Hollister Co. has also opened stores in Italy (Rome, Venice, Milan, Florence, Bergamo), Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt, Oberhausen, Hamburg, Ludwigshafen, Neuss, Bonn, Cologne and Dresden), China (Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shangai, Shenzhen and Tianjinn), Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Chiba, Hyogo, Kanagawa, Saitama), and more recently in Spain (Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Valencia, La Coruña, Zaragoza and Marbella). In 2011 Hollister opened its first store in Dublin, Ireland in the Dundrum Town Centre.
Marketing for the HCo. flagship was launched in May 2009. The extensive marketing campaign advertised the store as "The Epic Hollister Store." A&F launched HCORideTheWave.com which 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" tells the remaining time down to seconds until the opening. The first flagship for the HCo. brand was finally opened July 16, 2009.
Marketing and goods[]
Merchandise[]
Clothing offerings by Hollister Co. include but is not limited to "graphic" and "crew & tee" shirts, polos, Henleys, cardigans, shirts, pullovers, outerwear, rinse or wash slim Jeans, flip-flops, dresses, swimwear, boxers, accessories, and so on.
Fragrances[]
In 2001, Hollister released its signature fragrance Hollister Co. for women and men, but later they were discontinued. Other fragrances were released over the years including "Jake" and "Malaia". The official store scent is the popular cologne, appropriately named, "SoCal".
Personal care products[]
Sessions/Body Care[]
Originally known as "Sessions", the body care line has been simplified to "Body Care." Upon its original release, Hollister Body Care products included: body wash, body lotion, mist, body spray, deodorant/antiperspirant, lip gloss, lip shine, and lip balm. A short time after the initial release they unveiled hair wax, and hand lotion. The deodorant/antiperspirant, lip gloss, lip shine, lip balm, hair wax, and the Bettys body wash have all been discontinued.
Current personal care lines[]
In 2012, Hollister introduced a line of men's personal care products called "Prep" to compete with Unilever's Axe and Procter & Gamble's Old Spice men's grooming product lines. Prep products include: body and hair wash, body spray, deodorant/antiperspirant, after shave, hair wax, hair styling gel, and shave gel.
The women's personal care products are mainly sold under the "Gilly Hicks" brand since 2012 with the exception of the "Malaia" scented body wash, body lotion, and mist products until 2015 when the scent was added to Hollister's Gilly Hicks women's grooming products line.
Stores[]
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 brightness of the ceiling lights during opening hours, lowering the volume of the music, and removing the shutters from the stores' exteriors.
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 gray-blue boardwalk with three steps lead to the entrance. The interior of the store is mostly concealed from outside view by a parallel wall. Abercrombie & Fitch experimented with shuttered windows when they created Hollister Co. and the concept was eventually expanded to the main Abercrombie & Fitch and Abercrombie Kids brands.
In November 2013, 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 feet but feature larger selling areas. As of January 2016, some of the beach shack stores with stairs had been renovated and brand new constructed stores feature the redesign.
Flagship stores[]
The Company opened the first flagship store for the Hollister concept 16 July 2009. The flagship was located in the SoHo district of the New York City borough of Manhattan on 600 Broadway at the southeast corner of Houston Street and Broadway. Four floors of the occupied building provide a retail space of 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2). The 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 in 2019.
Future store expansion[]
United States[]
After a turbulent Christmas 2008 fashion season with economic turn-down in the retail industry, Abercrombie & Fitch has adjusted its plans for 2009 to fit the persisting "environment". For 2009, the company's main commitment domestically for Hollister was the opening of the HCO flagship in SoHo.
Since December 2008, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. opened Hollister Co. stores including co-branded Hollister/Gily Hicks throughout the United States.
There are over 500 locations in the United States, and internationally there are 30 stores in the UK and 11 in Canada. There are 13 in France, 18 in Germany, 3 in Sweden, 3 in the Netherlands, 11 in Spain, 9 in Italy, 2 in Hong Kong, 2 in Japan, 1 in both Ireland and Poland, 2 located in South Korea, and 7 in China. There are also two stores in Australia and 7 in Austria.
Canada[]
Hollister Co. has 10 locations in Canada. Five locations in Ontario, two in Alberta, and one in each British Columbia, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia. New Hollister stores are now open in Hamilton, Ontario and Brampton, Ontario.
United Kingdom[]
As of April 2021, there are 30 stores in the United Kingdom.
Rest of Europe[]
Hollister currently has stores in Ireland, France, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Poland, Italy, and the Netherlands.
Asia[]
Hollister opened in Hong Kong at Festival Walk (Kowloon Tong) and Hysan Place (Causeway Bay) in 2011. In 2012, Hollister opened a store in South Korea and also a store in Shanghai, China.
Australia and Middle East[]
Hollister had plans to open stores in Australia and the Middle East in 2013. In 2013, Hollister opened two stores in Australia, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney. Both Australian stores have closed permanently in early 2016. In May 2019, the first Hollister store opened in Kuwait, located in The Avenues phase 4 near 400 Gradi.
See also[]
External links[]
| Limited Brands | ||
|---|---|---|
| ----
Big Box/Department Store Chains Dick's Sporting Goods Regent Brands
B. Altman | Bonwit Teller | Franklin Simon | I. Magnin | W&J Sloane Casual Mall/Store Chains
Ascena Stores Claire's Closeout Express Hot Topic Journeys The Limited Regent Brands Tween Brands Other Assets Other Assets
Rewards Programs: |
| Abercrombie & Fitch |
|---|
| ----
Abercrombie & Fitch | Abercrombie Kids | Gilly Hicks | Hollister | Ruehl No.925 |