Authentic Brands opens Mexico HQ

Authentic Brands Group (ABG) has announced the opening of its Mexico headquarters.

Located in the Colonia Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City, the headquarters is set to generate growth opportunities for ABG brands across Mexico, Central and South America, the company said in a press statement.

ABG, which operates brands like Aeropostale, Juicy Couture, Nine West, Vince Camuto and Volcom, among others, invited Mexican media outlets to a media preview of its new office space, where Jamie Salter, ABG’s chief executive officer, discussed the company’s future plans.

“Latin America is roughly 10% of our business,” Salter said in an interview. “A majority of our revenue is coming out of Mexico...we’ll have a satellite office in Panama and a satellite office in Brazil, but it made the most sense to put the office in Mexico City.”

Salter said that ABG plans to lean into its entertainment business in Latin America, emphasizing that 25% of the company’s business is in entertainment.

“We think that ultimately the entertainment side of our business is going to excel in Latin America in a major way, that’s been the fastest growth for ABG over the past three years,” he said.

When asked if he would buy a Mexican brand, Salter said he would consider it if he thought the brand -- whether a liquor brand, apparel brand or entertainment brand --could be globalized.

On a broader scale, Salter said e-commerce is “the number one initiative” for ABG, which “does approximately $10 billion of retail revenue on a worldwide basis,” roughly 15% of which comes from e-commerce.

In order to counteract that business coming from third-party sites like Dicks.com or Amazon.com, Salter said that ABG is working on what he called “the ABG Universe.”

A subscription-based model, the ABG Universe will charge $60 per year to give subscribers exclusive access to ABG brand content and ABG brand events.

Authentic Brands opens Mexico HQ

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