Apparel retailer Gap Inc raised its full-year profit forecast, encouraged by strong sales of its lower-priced Old Navy clothes, and said it would open 40 stores in India as part of its strategy to expand in emerging markets.<\/p>\n
Gap has been looking to reduce its dependence on the North American market, which generates more than three-quarters of its sales.<\/p>\n
Sales of its other key brands \u2014 Gap and Banana Republic \u2014 have cooled in the region as shoppers cut down on discretionary spending.<\/p>\n
Sales in Asia accounted for only 9 percent of Gap’s total revenue of $16.1 billion in the year ended February 2014, but are growing fast. The company said in April it expected sales in China to triple in the next three years to $1 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndia is an emerging, vibrant market and an important next step in our global expansion strategy,\u201d said Steve Sunnucks, Global President of Gap.<\/p>\n
Gap said it is partnering with Arvind Lifestyle Brand Ltd, a unit of textile manufacturer Arvind Ltd, for opening the stores in India. The first stores will open in Mumbai and Delhi.<\/p>\n
The company, which currently has 231 Gap stores in Asia, is also aiming to open 110 Gap stores in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan this year.<\/p>\n
Gap raised its full-year profit forecast to $2.95-$3.00 per share for the year ending February 2015. It had previously forecast $2.90-$2.95 per share.<\/p>\n
Analysts on average expected the company to earn $2.95 per share for the year, according to Thomson Reuters I\/B\/E\/S.<\/p>\n
Comparable sales at Old Navy stores rose 4 percent in the second quarter ended Aug. 2. Sales of Gap and Banana Republic clothing were disappointing. Comparable store sales fell 5 percent at Gap and were flat at Banana Republic.<\/p>\n
Many large U.S. retailers have reported disappointing quarterly sales at their established stores, pointing to a cutback in spending on discretionary items.<\/p>\n
Aeropostale Inc on Thursday reported a 13 percent fall in second-quarter comparable sales, while American Apparel Inc said on Monday quarterly same-store sales declined 6 percent.<\/p>\n
Gap’s net profit rose to $332 million, or 75 cents per share, in the second quarter, from $303 million, or 64 cents per share a year ago.<\/p>\n
Excluding items, the company earned 70 cents per share.<\/p>\n
Revenue rose 3 percent to $3.98 billion. Comparable sales were flat versus a 5 percent increase a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Analysts on average expected a profit of 69 cents per share on revenue of $3.96 billion.<\/p>\n
Gap’s shares were up 1 percent in extended trading after closing at $43.18 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.<\/p>\n
By Ramkumar Iyer; Editor: Saumyadeb Chakrabarty<\/p>\n
Copyright (2014) Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Apparel retailer Gap Inc raised its full-year profit forecast, encouraged by strong sales of its lower-priced Old Navy clothes, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2087,1],"tags":[2123],"class_list":["post-20800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-news","tag-lifestyle"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Apparel retailer Gap Inc raised its full-year profit forecast, encouraged by strong sales of its lower-priced Old Navy clothes, and","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["Lifestyle","News"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":105,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":3,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Admin","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=1"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/53e6cdc30765aade0129f85e5aeb50124b1d3f5bb9a70373be31e4eb328371e0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"Lifestyle<\/a> News<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}