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☆ Gap settles Patagonia trademark lawsuit over 'iconic' pocket design
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Andrew Goudsward | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 1 (Reuters) - Outdoor clothing retailer Patagonia Inc has settled its lawsuit accusing Gap Inc (GPS.N) of illegally copying the "iconic" snapped flap pocket that the company has long featured on its fleece outerwear. The outfitter alleged the jackets were intended to confuse shoppers into believing they were Patagonia products or that Patagonia let the retailer use its trademarks. Gap denied the claims and argued in court filings that Patagonia had waited too long to bring the lawsuit. Gap also filed a counterclaim asking a judge to rule that the design of Patagonia’s Snap-T pullover fleece is not legally protected. (This story has been corrected to say "Patagonia products" not "Gap products" in paragraph 5)Reporting by Andrew GoudswardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Andrew Goudsward Organizations: Patagonia Inc, Gap Inc, Thomson Locations: Patagonia, San Francisco federal

☆ Gap shares soar after retailer reports big improvement in margins
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | In Gabrielle-Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The Gap logo is displayed at a Gap store on April 25, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. On an adjusted basis, the company reported earnings of $3 million, or 1 cent per share. Shares jumped more than 15% in after-hours trading on the improvement in gross margins. In its most recent quarter, comparable sales were down 3% and store sales decreased 4% compared to last year. Gross margins increased by 5.6 percentage points year over year to 37.1%, and improved on the prior quarter, too, when margins were 33.6%.

DHAKA, May 18 (Reuters) - Apparel makers in Bangladesh are considering rare bulk exports by air to Europe and the United States, as they race to meet deadlines and avoid cancellations after a cyclone delayed shipments, caused power cuts and disrupted production. Bangladesh, the world's second-largest garment exporter, has already been hit by weakening global demand, with exports falling in both March and April. Another garment owner who supplies H&M said some of his shipments had been delayed. Power cuts in the last two months, first due to a scorching heatwave, and then the cyclone, have put more stress on apparel companies. "Now there are also chances of missing orders for the next season, as we are struggling to provide samples on time due to the regular power cuts," Ehsan said.

☆ US retailers cut most number of jobs in April -report
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 4 (Reuters) - U.S. retailers replaced technology firms in cutting the most number of jobs in April, as companies show little signs of easing their belt-tightening drive in an uncertain economy. Higher interest rates to counter the impact of inflation have muddied the outlook for the U.S. economy, forcing Corporate America to undertake stringent measures to protect itself from any fallout from a potential recession. So far this year, major retail and consumer companies including Gap Inc (GPS.N) and Walmart (WMT.N) have announced job cuts. The report also said job cuts last month fell 25% to about 67,000 - the lowest so far in the year, taking total layoffs to around 337,000 jobs since the start of the year. Reporting by Akash Sriram and Tanya Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Gap to Conduct Layoffs, Cutting 1,800 Corporate Jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Suzanne Kapner | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Gap’s latest round of cuts is expected to result in $300 million in annualized savings. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty ImagesGap Inc. said it is eliminating 1,800 jobs as part of a broad restructuring aimed at making the company more nimble and less bureaucratic. The job cuts are expected to result in $300 million in annualized savings as part of a plan outlined in March, the company said Thursday. The positions being eliminated are mainly at its San Francisco and New York headquarters as well as some senior field roles.

☆ Gap to lay off 1,800 workers as part of broad push to cut costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The Gap logo is displayed at a Gap store on April 25, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Gap will lay off about 1,800 employees as part of a broad effort to cut costs and streamline operations, the company said Thursday. The layoffs are expected to result in annualized savings of $300 million, Gap's interim CEO Bob Martin said in a statement. The layoffs will cost Gap about $100 million to $120 million in aggregate pre-tax costs, according to a securities filing. About 9% of its global staff work in headquarter locations.

☆ Gap to lay off about 1,800 employees in second round of job cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 27 (Reuters) - Gap Inc (GPS.N) said on Thursday it would cut about 1,800 jobs in a second round of layoffs, joining a set of big U.S. companies that are downsizing in earnest as high inflation eats into consumer wallets. In September, Gap eliminated about 500 corporate workers across a range of departments as it struggled to protect margins and battled weak sales. As of Jan. 28, the apparel chain had about 95,000 employees, according to a regulatory filing. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the new round of job cuts earlier this week. Reporting by Anne Florentyna Gnanaraja Sekar and Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'SouzaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

NEW YORK, April 26 (Reuters) - Fast Retailing's (9983.T) Uniqlo plans to expand its existing stores in North America by 10%, according to one of its executives. Fast Retailing reported a 16.4% rise to 220 billion yen ($1.65 billion) in first-half operating profit earlier this month. The company also raised its full-year profit forecast to 360 billion yen ($2.7 billion) from 350 billion yen ($2.63 billion). Daisuke Tsukagoshi, Uniqlo North America chief executive, said in an email to Reuters that the chain chose to launch the Ottawa and Calgary stores after seeing a "strong online presence" there. Sweden's fast fashion giant H&M has more than 738 stores in North and South America as of February 2023, according to the retailer's website.

☆ Gap Plans to Lay Off Hundreds of Corporate Workers in Latest Cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Suzanne Kapner | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Gap leaders conducted a review with the goal of stripping out layers of management to speed decision making. Photo: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg NewsGap Inc. is eliminating hundreds of corporate jobs from its global workforce as part of a broad restructuring aimed at making the company more nimble and less bureaucratic, according to people familiar with the situation. The current round of cuts is slated to be larger than in September, when Gap eliminated roughly 500 corporate positions, one of the people said. Those job cuts were mostly at its main offices in San Francisco and New York, and were part of efforts to save about $250 million annually.

☆ Old Navy wants to solve a major bugbear of female shoppers by selling more dresses with pockets, as it looks for creative ways to boost sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Old Navy says it has doubled the number of dresses with pockets in its new collection. One expert said Old Navy also needs to focus on styles and freshness to win over shoppers. Old Navy, which accounts for more than half of Gap Inc's total sales, has seen sales fall in recent years. "However, adding pockets is not a solution for all of Old Navy's woes – which run much deeper than the absence of pockets. Old Navy did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment asking how many dresses it currently sells that contain pockets.

Several major finance companies also voluntarily reported ethnicity pay data for the period. The majority of major finance firms nonetheless made progress in narrowly closing their gender pay gaps, according to their disclosures. ETHNICITY PAY GAPSHalf of the 20 finance firms reviewed reported varying detail on ethnicity pay gaps, with some including insurer Phoenix doing so for the first time. Where pay gaps were further broken down by ethnicity, they showed the largest pay disparities were between Black and white employees. All the employers said in their pay gap reports they were taking steps to improve diversity, particularly at senior levels.

☆ Old Navy’s response to slumping sales: More pockets
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Old Navy, known for its low-priced basic and trendy seasonal clothing, has adopted an interesting sartorial tactic amid sinking sales. The new dress styles with pockets rolled out into Old Navy stores this month and the retailer said it will also increase the number of summer dresses with pockets. As such, it is a good move for Old Navy to add them,” said Neil Saunders, retail industry analyst and managing director of GlobalData. Old NavyOld Navy’s fourth-quarter sales fell 6% over the previous year, while sales at its stores open at least a year fell 7%. Specifically, Old Navy and Gap brands both said shoppers were pulling back their spending on babies’ and kids’ items.

☆ Futures dip as SVB Financial extends rout, payrolls data awaited
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The reading is likely to show nonfarm payrolls grew by 205,000 jobs in February, less than half of the eye-popping 517,000 additions in January. The unemployment rate is forecast to stay unchanged at 3.4%, the lowest since May 1969. "The strength of the January jobs data came as a surprise to markets," said Mark Haefele Chief Investment Officer, UBS Global Wealth Management in a note. ET, Dow e-minis were down 127 points, or 0.39%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 11.75 points, or 0.3%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 4.5 points, or 0.04%. Among other stocks, Gap Inc (GPS.N) fell 6.7% in premarket trading after the apparel maker posted a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and forecast full-year sales below Wall Street estimates, signaling a slowdown in demand.

Wall Street's main indexes recorded steep losses in the previous session after startups-focused lender SVB Financial Group's (SIVB.O) share sale to shore up its balance sheet wiped out more than $80 billion in value from bank shares. The bank is in talks to sell itself, the report added. All three major U.S. indexes were headed towards weekly losses as Fed Chair Jerome Powell earlier this week left open the possibility of a large rate hike at the Fed's March meeting, after the central bank dialed down the size of its rate hike last month. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 3.33-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 3.88-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Shristi Achar in Bengaluru Editing by Vinay DwivediOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Gap sees weak annual sales as inflation-hit consumers rein in spending
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 9 (Reuters) - Gap Inc (GPS.N) on Thursday posted a bigger-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and forecast full-year sales below Wall Street estimates, signaling a slowdown in demand for its products as inflation-weary consumers curb discretionary spending. Shares of the company fell about 7% in extended trading after the Banana Republic parent also forecast first-quarter sales below estimates. The company also said president and chief executive officer of its Athleta brand, Mary Beth Laughton, was exiting the business, effective on Thursday. Sales at Old Navy, Gap's biggest brand, slid 6%, while at Athleta, which sponsors U.S. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, they were down 1%. The company posted a fourth-quarter loss of 75 cents per share, compared to estimates of a loss of 46 cents.

"High spot LNG prices and dwindling domestic production will mean that Pakistan will continue facing issues with ramping up gas-fired power generation," said Poorna Rajendran, LNG consultant at FGE. Despite LNG prices having fallen from last year's record highs, the superchilled fuel is still expensive for South Asian buyers as their currencies have weakened sharply, making it hard for them to boost LNG imports this year. Ship tracking data from Kpler shows Pakistan's LNG imports in 2022 fell 17% from the previous year to a five-year low. Bangladesh's LNG imports in 2022 fell 14% from the previous year, according to Kpler, which drove down power output while demand was rising. LNG prices are unlikely to ease enough to help Bangladesh and Pakistan, with analysts expecting a rebound in Chinese purchases to push prices up in 2023.

☆ Retail CEO crisis: With recent shakeups at Kohl's, Adidas, Dollar General, and more, the industry's top job is suddenly the hardest to fill
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Matthew Kish | Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

It's the surest sign yet of a crisis facing the retail industry. Supply chains got snarled, shoppers stopped visiting stores, and stimulus payments spiked demand, each making it difficult to measure how business was doing. Then stimulus payments sent demand for everything from sneakers to home goods spiking while supply chains snarled. And just when supply chains started to sort themselves out, inflation hit, and shoppers started to scale back spending. Retail CEOs need 'peripheral vision'Workers at Starbucks stores and Amazon warehouses across the country have pushed to unionize, with many calling out the pay disparity between front-line workers and top executives.

☆ Shopify Bulks Up Online Fulfillment Logistics Services
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Liz Young | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Shopify Inc. is stepping up its logistics and fulfillment services as it expands efforts to help merchants compete with Amazon.com Inc. The challenges for small retailers in competing for sales are “almost always logistics and fulfillment,” said Aaron Brown, chief executive of Shopify Logistics. Shopify faces challenges, he said, in pushing into logistics services. Other companies, including retailers, have been seeking to market logistics services to other retailers, echoing Amazon’s warehousing and delivery operations through its Fulfillment by Amazon division. Apparel retailers American Eagle Outfitters Inc. and Gap Inc. offer fulfillment services to other merchants through their networks while Target Corp. and Walmart Inc. allow businesses to use their local same-day delivery services.

☆ Barclays nabs a former Goldman Sachs Marcus exec to lead its US cards and partnerships business
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Dakin Campbell | Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Goldman Sachs' consumer business is under pressure as CEO Solomon pivots. Villone will join Barclays this April from Goldman Sachs Marcus, where he was a managing director and led global operations and consumer delivery for the Wall Street firm's consumer business. A pivot for Goldman Sachs and MarcusVillone's departure for Barclays also comes as top Goldman Sachs leadership telegraph a retreat from core parts of its consumer business. Goldman Sachs' consumer business was particularly impacted when the firm laid off roughly 3,000 employees last month, or roughly 6% of its workforce. Do you work on Wall Street or at Goldman Sachs or Barclays?

☆ Retail CEO crisis: why the industry's top job is suddenly the hardest to fill
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Matthew Kish | Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

☆ These beaten up, tax-loss victims could turn out to be 'gift boxes' for patient investors
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Patti Domm | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Tax-loss selling has hit some stocks especially hard this year, so Evercore ISI recommends picking through those companies for the ones with the right attributes that will turn them into "gifts" for patient, long term investors. "Stocks which have endured historic tax-loss selling pressure yet have favorable earnings, short interest and price momentum profiles headed into the New Year could prove to be `gifts' for patient long term investors," he wrote in a note. While tax-loss selling will continue into the holidays, Emanuel says opportunities are already emerging. They also have higher than normal short interest, with short interest in the upper half of their two-year ranges. Emanuel said the higher earnings revisions in these stocks contrast with his expectations that earnings will broadly decline 7% in 2023.

☆ You’re Hired! No Interview Required in Tight Labor Market
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Sarah Chaney Cambon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Some employers racing to snap up workers in the tight labor market are omitting a step once considered crucial to hiring: the job interview. United Parcel Service Inc. has bulked up its staff without conducting job interviews for package handlers and seasonal drivers. Home Depot Inc. has sent job offers as quickly as 24 hours after candidates apply, in some cases eliminating the interview process. Gap Inc. has dropped job interviews for some warehousing positions.

☆ Latinas lose $1.2 million over their careers due to the pay gap—here's what needs to change
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Morgan Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

That pay gap translates to a staggering loss of nearly $1.2 million over a 40-year career. Latinas with the largest pay gaps often work as maids, child-care workers and cashiers, among other critical, undervalued occupations, the Center for American Progress reports. Honduran women, for example, only make 44 cents, Guatemalan women make 47 cents, and Salvadoran women make 49 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, the NWLC reports. While the largest explained causes of the pay gap include the segregation of Latinas into lower-paying occupations and a history of discrimination and bias in hiring and salary decisions, a significant part of the pay gap can't be accounted for by these factors. Increasing pay transparency, providing Latinas access to information, negotiation tactics and connecting them with allies in the workplace can help Latinas in the fight for equal pay.

[1/3] Customers are seen inside the Express store in Broomfield, Colorado August 28, 2013. At risk are retailers' margins during the critical holiday shopping season and their efforts to be the go-to location for trendy fashions. Shopper demand has put a strain on apparel retailers throughout the year, boosting inventories and forcing retailers including Gap, Victoria's Secret and Kohl's, to slash prices. Deals since October and over Thanksgiving weekend were up in both frequency and discounting depth, including from clothing retailers, according to research from Jane Hali & Associates. Express' third-quarter margins are expected to fall to 29.7% from 33.22% a year earlier, according to analysts' estimates on Refinitiv.

☆ Rapper Kanye West no longer plans to buy social media platform Parler
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Helen Coster | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] American rapper Kanye West's picture is seen on a smartphone in front of the logo of social media app Parler in this Illustration taken, October 17, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationDec 1 (Reuters) - The parent company of social media platform Parler and American rapper Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, have agreed to terminate the intent of the sale of Parler, according to a statement from Parlement Technologies on Thursday. "Parler will continue to pursue future opportunities for growth and the evolution of the platform for our vibrant community." In September, Ye terminated his partnership with apparel retailer Gap Inc (GPS.N). Parler is one of several social media platforms, including Gettr, Gab and Truth Social, that have positioned themselves as free-speech alternatives to Twitter Inc prior to its new ownership under billionaire Elon Musk.

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