Gap opening outlet store in Italy

San Francisco -- Gap will enter the Italian outlet center market, opening a namesale store at the Vicolungo Outlet Center near Milan, on June 2.



“Opening only six months after the successful launch of our first flagships in Italy, this new store represents the fastest execution of our international strategy to date; adding our Outlet channel where we have been in-market for a period of time,” said Stephen Sunnucks, president, International, Gap. “With such a strong initial response from our customers, we will continue to expand our presence in Italy with our first stores in Rome and two additional Gap stores in outlet centers later this year.”



Gap currently operates more than 370 stores through its Outlet channel. Over the last four years, Gap’s international outlet store base has increased over 500% across the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan. Gap plans to grow this channel further with about 25 additional international stores in 2011 and through new market entries, such as China in 2012.