Urban Outfitters 2009 Annual Report Download - page 3

This filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) is being made
pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Certain matters contained in this filing may constitute forward-looking statements. When used in this
Form 10-K, the words “project,” “believe,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “expect” and similar expressions
are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements
contain these identifying words. Any one, or all, of the following factors could cause actual financial
results to differ materially from those financial results mentioned in the forward-looking statements:
the difficulty in predicting and responding to shifts in fashion trends, changes in the level of
competitive pricing and promotional activity and other industry factors, overall economic and market
conditions and the resultant impact on consumer spending patterns, lowered levels of consumer
confidence and higher levels of unemployment, and continuation of lowered levels of consumer
spending resulting from the worldwide economic downturn, any effects of terrorist acts or war,
availability of suitable retail space for expansion, timing of store openings, seasonal fluctuations in
gross sales, the departure of one or more key senior managers, import risks, including potential
disruptions and changes in duties, tariffs and quotas, potential difficulty liquidating certain
marketable security investments and other risks identified in our filings with the SEC. We disclaim any
intent or obligation to update forward-looking statements even if experience or future changes make it
clear that actual results may differ materially from any projected results expressed or implied therein.
Unless the context otherwise requires, all references to “Urban Outfitters,” the “Company,” “we,”
“us,” “our” or “our company” refer to Urban Outfitters, Inc., together with its subsidiaries.
PART I
Item 1. Business
General
We are a leading lifestyle specialty retail company that operates under the Urban Outfitters,
Anthropologie, Free People and Terrain brands. We also operate a wholesale segment under the Free
People and Leifsdottir brands. We have over 38 years of experience creating and managing retail stores
that offer highly differentiated collections of fashion apparel, accessories and home goods in inviting and
dynamic store settings. Our core strategy is to provide unified store environments that establish emotional
bonds with the customer. In addition to our retail stores, we offer our products and market our brands
directly to the consumer through our e-commerce web sites, www.urbanoutfitters.com,
www.anthropologie.com, www.freepeople.com and www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk, and also through our
Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People catalogs. We have achieved compounded annual sales
growth of approximately 27% over the past five years, with sales of approximately $1.8 billion in fiscal
2009.
We opened our first store in 1970 near the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia.
We were incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1976, and opened our second store in Harvard Square,
Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1980. The first Anthropologie store opened in a suburb of Philadelphia
in October 1992. We started doing business in Europe in 1998, with our first European store located in
London. We opened our first Free People store in the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus, New Jersey
in November 2002. We opened our first Terrain garden center in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania in April
2008.
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