Urban Outfitters 2012 Annual Report Download - page 4

Table of Contents
Certain matters contained in this filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") may contain forward-looking statements
and are being made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. 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, continuation of lowered levels of consumer spending resulting
from the continuing worldwide economic downturn and related debt crisis, any effects of terrorist acts or war, availability of suitable retail space for
expansion, timing of store openings, risks associated with international expansion, 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, the closing of any of our distribution centers, our
ability to protect our intellectual property rights, risks associated with internet sales, response to new store concepts, potential difficulty liquidating certain
marketable security investments, changes in accounting standards and subjective assumptions, regulatory changes and legal matters and other risks identified
in our filings with the SEC, including those set forth in item 1A of this Form 10-K. 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, Terrain and BHLDN brands.
We also operate a wholesale segment under the Free People brand. We have over 41 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 websites, www.urbanoutfitters.com, www.anthropologie.com, www.freepeople.com, www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk,
www.urbanoutfitters.de, www.urbanoutfitters.fr, www.anthropologie.eu, www.shopterrain.com and www.bhldn.com and also through our Urban Outfitters,
Anthropologie and Free People catalogs. We have achieved compounded annual sales growth of approximately 15% over the past five years, with sales of
approximately $2.5 billion in fiscal 2012.
We opened our first store in 1970 near the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 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 June 1998, with our first
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