Gap has promoted Old Navy CEO Sonia Syngal to CEO of Gap, effective March 23. She will aim to strengthen the performance of Gap’s overall retail portfolio, which has been struggling with declining sales across its banners.
Syngal has been with Gap since 2004, and has served in leadership positions including Managing Director of Europe and SVP of the International Division and International Outlet Division. Prior to joining Gap, she held manufacturing and supply chain management positions at Sun Microsystems and Ford Motor Co.
Syngal grew Old Navy’s sales from $7 billion to $8 billion over three years, and expanded its brick-and-mortar presence to more than 1,200 stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Gap considered spinning off the retailer as its own publicly traded company but opted against the move due to slowing sales and the potential cost. For now, Gap will work on turning around performance across its existing portfolio.
“I’m committed to fully realizing the potential of our portfolio and the advantage of our scale, with a focus on strengthening the love that our millions of customers have for our brands,” said Syngal in a statement. “To do that, we must better prioritize initiatives and capabilities that will improve execution and drive value creation.”
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Gap has already started exploring new avenues to boost sales, including a partnership with thredUP that encourages shoppers to turn in their secondhand clothes in exchange for shopping credits. Customers who redeem the credits at Gap brand receive an additional 15% payout bonus, encouraging their return.
However, the retailer still has a lot of work to do to achieve a true turnaround. Syngal saw significant success at Old Navy, but the Gap brand as a whole must overcome significant challenges to become healthy again.
“Gap is more complex than Old Navy,” said Neil Saunders, Managing Director of GlobalData in a RetailWire discussion. “The customer demographic is wider. The brand is fairly tarnished. Some of the merchandising changes needed are subtle. And a new position and brand essence are needed. So there are no easy or quick fixes and Syngal will have her work cut out for her.”
