Gap Inc. Q2 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-08-21 09:27:28.0

Tags: Staffing, Gap Inc., Call Transcript, Earnings, Friedman Billings Ramsey, Real Estate, Strategy, Business Operations, Management, Seeking Alpha, The Gap Inc.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Adrienne Tennant, with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey.

Adrienne Tennant - Friedman, Billings, Ramsey

Good afternoon. I wanted to ask you about the real estate rationalization on the three year plan. What progresses you've made on it and what learning’s you’ve had? How difficult those landlords to deal with or how easy are they? Thank you.

Glenn Murphy

I would say that, it’s always going to be a bit of a challenge, its one of the few parts in our business where it takes two parties to come to an agreement. So, we’re making progress, certainly are following our three to five year plan we put forward in terms of repositioning the stores were necessary getting between 10% and 15% reductions square footage.

Actually having a plan now, so when capital needs to be appropriated, decisions need to be made, I think it so much easier now on a brand-by-brand basis. Also I’d say on a country-by-country basis to follow strategy that the business has approved and is attempting on a quarterly basis to execute on.

We just anniversaried last month, the first plan we put together which was in a summer of 2008, so like anything, I have meetings with all the real estate teams in the last 30 or 60 days. We made minor adjustments to the strategy, but I think the general spirit is clearly not changed one bit.

We still believe that in general the economic conditions make this a slight net positive environment where somebody with 40 million square feet and different brands, and I would say a clear strategy that we've been able to go to the landlord community and explain to them what our intentions are, what our goals are and why.

My experience in real estate is even though it takes two parties to come to an agreement, if you’re clear and you’re consistent then I think you can ultimately get what you want to get out of your strategy so, so far so good. I think feel good about the team we have in place and the execution they've delivered after one year of a three to five year plan.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Betty Chen, with Wedbush

Betty Chen - Wedbush

Glenn, I was wondering if you could give us a little bit more color about the premium denim at the Gap brand. In particular, we’ve been noticing some inventory positions and how you feel about that and in particular also staffing. I know you have done a great job of trying to control store staffing according to sales trend. Given this is a rather high touch point item, how are you thinking about staffing needs to make sure that customers are aware of the new merchandise and to serve their needs appropriately? Thank you.

 

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