Dec. sales fall 6% at Gap Inc.

SAN FRANCISCO Gap Inc. today reported net sales of $2.20 billion for the five-week period ended Jan. 5, which represents a 6% decrease compared with net sales of $2.34 billion for the five-week period ended Dec. 30, 2006.

The company reported a comparable-store sales decrease of 6% for December 2007 compared with an 8% decrease in December 2006.

“We were pleased that merchandise margins in December were significantly above last year, which is consistent with our strategy of delivering earnings with healthy margins,” said Sabrina Simmons, evp of finance and acting cfo of Gap Inc. “However, we did not sell through as much inventory as we anticipated, and we’ll focus on clearing through remaining holiday product in January.”