Third largest fashion retailer in the world leaves Romania

American retailer Gap has made an exit from the Romanian market, where it closed down all its shops, according to Ziarul Financiar. The GAP brand operated in Romania under the franchise owned by Greek group Marinopoulus. The last Gap shop in Romania was closed this week in Baneasa Shopping city.

Gap is the third largest fashion retailer in the world, after Inditex and H&M and it entered the Romanian market 5 years ago when it opened its first shop in Baneasa Shopping City. Two more shops followed in Sun Plaza and in Plaza Romania shopping malls.

Gap Inc. is a leading global specialty retailer offering clothing, accessories, and personal care products for men, women, children, and babies under the Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime, and Athleta brands.

The company operates 3,100 stores across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, China, France, Ireland, Japan and Italy, with another 375 stores run under franchises in locations across Asia, Australia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

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The Gap may be leaving, but it global competitors seem to be doing well in Romania. At the end of January, H&M announced it passed the EUR 100 mln sales mark in Romania in 2013, up some EUR 72 million on the previous year. Its sales in local currency went up by some 42 percent.

The Spanish fashion retailer Inditex posted sales revenues of RON 671m (GBP 151.8m) in 2012 on the Romanian market, an increase by 30% compared to 2011, Wall Street reported.