{"id":8039,"date":"2019-03-01T02:15:54","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T02:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/gap-to-shut-shops-and-hive-off-old-navy\/"},"modified":"2019-03-01T02:15:54","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T02:15:54","slug":"gap-to-shut-shops-and-hive-off-old-navy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/gap-to-shut-shops-and-hive-off-old-navy\/","title":{"rendered":"Gap to shut shops and hive off Old Navy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"GapImage copyright<\/span>
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Fashion firm Gap Inc has announced is shutting 230 stores and splitting off its Old Navy brand, a restructuring aimed at “revitalising” the company.<\/p>\n

It emerged as new figures revealed that like-for-like sales at Gap continued to fall while Old Navy’s revenue rose.<\/p>\n

Old Navy will be a standalone company while a new business, which is yet to be named, will house Gap as well as its other brands including Banana Republic.<\/p>\n

Gap Inc said the closures would mainly be in North America. <\/p>\n

The firm said it had already closed 55 of its eponymous stores.<\/p>\n

That leaves 742 Gap stores globally.<\/p>\n

It is not yet clear how many jobs will be lost or where the closures will occur over the next two years. <\/p>\n

Revitalise<\/h2>\n

It is part of a strategy to “revitalise” the brand, and generate more of its sales online, which it hopes will reach 40% of total revenues.<\/p>\n

Once once a by-word for cool, sporty, casual wear, and promoted through high-profile advertising campaigns fronted by the likes of Madonna and rapper Missy Elliott, Gap’s popularity amongst the young and fashionable has recently waned. <\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n Missy Elliott and Madonna fronted a Gap advertising campaign in 2003
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Cheaper fast-fashion brands such as Zara, H&M and Forever 21 now attract younger shoppers and Gap’s sales have been falling in recent years.<\/p>\n

In its latest financial results, Gap Inc said that like-for-like sales at its namesake stores fell by 5% over both the fourth quarter and the full year.<\/p>\n

Same store sales were flat for Old Navy in fourth quarter but rose by 3% over 12 months.<\/p>\n

Christina Boni, vice president at Moody’s, the rating agency, said: “Old Navy is Gap Inc.’s leading brand comprising 47% of sales in 2018 with margins that lead its portfolio.<\/p>\n

“Old Navy continues to outpace Gap Brand and Banana Republic and is one the fastest-growing major apparel brands with comparable stores of 3% in 2018 growing to over $7.8bn in 2018.”<\/p>\n

However she cautioned that spinning off Old Navy “reduces the diversification the brand provides to the overall entity”. <\/p>\n

In the fourth quarter, operating profit fell to $372m from $396m on sales marginally lower at $4.6bn.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source<\/a> by [author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Getty Images Fashion firm Gap Inc has announced is shutting 230 stores and splitting off its Old Navy brand, a restructuring aimed at “revitalising” the company. It emerged as new figures revealed that like-for-like sales at Gap continued to fall while Old Navy’s revenue rose. Old Navy will be a standalone company while … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}