Gap

To bring its 1969 Premium Jeans line closer to the heart of the designer denim industry, Gap opened a creative design office in a gritty section of downtown L.A. last year. Now the company is putting its L.A. vibe at the core of a global marketing campaign that launches today, complete with food trucks and a dog.

Rome -- Gap said Friday that it will debut its first Gap flagship store in Rome on Via del Corso, the city’s premier shopping district, on July 30. The opening in Rome is part of Gap’s ongoing international growth strategy; it opened its first Gap and Banana Republic stores in Milan in November 2010. Four additional Gap and Banana Republic stores are slated to open in Italy this year. The company also recently introduced its outlet concept to the country and said it expects to open additional stores in Italian outlet centers. The new flagship store is a two-story,

The Tommy Hilfiger Group has named John Ermatinger CEO of the company's Asia business, effective Aug. 1. Ermatinger was previously president of Gap Asia Pacific for two years and president of Gap Japan for three years. Under his leadership, Gap successfully launched the brand in China.

07/27/2011

For more than a decade, there's been a sizeable gap in analyses of the retail and consumer goods industries because Walmart did not make its sales data available to third-party firms. Now that the world's largest retailer will begin sharing information from its Walmart and Sam's Club stores with analytics firm Nielsen, that gap will shrink dramatically. While Walmart does share data with many of its consumer goods suppliers, the retailer had stayed out of the prevailing retail/consumer goods data sharing model for over 10 years. Because Walmart can account for one-third to one-half of a consumer product's market

Art.com, a specialty provider of wall art, announced Ivy Ross has joined the company as chief merchandising officer. Ross, who comes to Art.com from Gap, will lead worldwide merchandising, branding and public relations for the company's three brands — Art.com, AllPosters.com and ArtistRising.com.

Athleta, a sportswear brand that Gap purchased in 2008, is planning to open eight to 10 more brick-and-mortar stores by year's end and 50 locations by 2013 to "grow the business and provide what women want."

Facing decreases in same-store sales and shrinking customer bases, Gap and Talbots are planning to close a combined 300-plus stores over the next two years. By 2013, Gap plans to close 200 of its 900 locations, 22 percent of its current total, and Talbots will shutter 110 of its 580 units, a 19 percent decrease.

Gap's big plan for bolstering its flagging sales? Make its U.S. stores more like its international stores. “We see the international team having a much bigger say in not only how our brands operate in global markets, but how they operate in the U.S.,” Gap's Chairman and CEO Glenn Murphy said at a recent conference. Murphy says international influence on Gap's American retail locations “will be fairly noticeable next year and a little bit this holiday."

Gap continues to tweak its operating model in the hope of reversing the trend that put it on a downward spiral in the mid-2000s. During a call with analysts yesterday, company CEO Glenn Murphy revealed Gap plans to close 200 stores by 2013, putting the company's total store count in the U.S. at 700. In 2007, the Gap operated 1,150 stores nationwide. At the same time, Gap plans to step up expansion in the outlet center space for both its Gap and Banana Republic divisions.