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Gap Inc. in 2010: Is the turnaround strategy working?

Gap Inc. is a leading international specialty retailer offering clothing, accessories and personal care products for men, women, children and babies. Gap owned and operated more than 3,100 Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy stores world wide in 2010. With stores located in the U.S, UK, Canada, France, Japan and Germany, Gap Inc. employees nearly 165,000 employees world wide.

Since 2002 Gap Inc. has been a number of issues including the declining sales of the family clothing store industry. During this time many turnaround strategies have been implemented in the attempt to eliminate long term debt, redesign the companies online presence, create a new e-commerce platform, expensing internationally and improving quality, styling and overall image. Through this adoption since 2002, the market share and sales of Gap Inc. have still decreased and the brand image has also taken a hit.

An Internal analysis shows that even though sales have decreased, Gaps financial performance has strengthened year on year. Gap’s Liquidity, leverage and profitability have shown a stead increase that has helped the company maintain a stronger business situation than competitors throughout the recession. A SWOT analysis of Gaps Inc.’s internal structure shows strengths in net profit margins, a strong franchising model and the reinstatement of their strong brand image. Weaknesses include high levels of competition, large amount of substitutable products and low switching costs for consumers. Some opportunities that Gap Inc. could capitalise on include a positive growth in online sales and markets and a growing plus size market. The greatest threat for Gap Inc. is the weak consumer spending in the U.S and the global economic downturn since 2008.

On the other hand an external analysis shows an industry facing extremely competitive

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