retail

Skies Brighten For Specialty Stores

It looks like there is finally some good news for specialty retailers, with major chains like Gap and the Limited posting sharply higher results and announcing new growth initiatives.

The Gap says that its initiatives for the struggling Old Navy division are paying off, with same-store sales up 7% -- pushing net earning for its fiscal fourth quarter to $1.1 billion, up from $967 million in the same period a year ago. And sales for the period rose 4% to $4.24 billion, from $4.08 billion last year.

The results are so encouraging that the San Francisco-based company says that it hopes to expand the new Old Navy store model to an additional 200 stores. It plans to open its first Gap stores in China. And based on the success of its London and Paris stores, the company also says it plans to open Gap and Banana Republic stores next door to each other in Milan's leading shopping area on the Corso Vittorio Emanuele in late 2010, and plans to open additional Italian stores -- including one in Rome -- in 2011.

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Also, Limited Brands, the Columbus, Ohio-based parent of Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works, says its net income surged to $356.1 million for the quarter, compared to $16.1 million in the same period last year. Net sales inched up slightly to $3.06 billion, compared to net sales of $2.99 billion in the same quarter a year ago, while comparable-store sales squeaked out a 1% gain. But it told investors that sales were up smartly: While it had previously forecast that February sales would come in flat, it is now predicting a comparable-store sales jump in "the high single to low double-digit range."

Separately, a new ranking from Global Prepaid Exchange's Gift Card Performance Index named Limited Brands' Bath and Body Works gift cards as the most popular in the U.S., based on a survey of more than 2,300 adults. (It narrowly beat Red Lobster, in second place, and iTunes, in third.)

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