Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Abby, and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome everyone to The Gap, Inc. First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. I would now like to introduce your host, Cameron McLaughlin, Head of Investor Relations.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Gap Inc.’s first quarter fiscal 2023 earnings conference call. Before we begin, I’d like to remind you that the information made available on this webcast and conference call contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks that could cause our actual results to be materially different. For information on factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements, as well as a description and reconciliation of any financial measures not consistent with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, please refer to the cautionary statements contained in our latest earnings release. The risk factors described in the company's annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 14, 2023 and any subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available on gapinc.com. These forward-looking statements are based on information as of today May 25, 2023, and we assume no obligation to publicly update or revise our forward-making statements. Joining me on the call today our Interim Chief Executive Officer, Bobby Martin; Chief Financial Officer, Katrina O’Connell. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Bobby.

Thank you, Cammeron and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Consistent with what you have heard from us over the last few quarters, we continue to take the necessary actions to drive critical change at Gap, Inc. to further improve the trajectory of our business and to get us back on a path toward delivering consistent results. We are improving near-term execution and requiring a much deeper and integrated focus on the customer to unleash each brand’s potential. Also, simplifying our operating structure and model, reducing costs, improving speed of decision making and unlocking our creative muscle. And modernizing our core capabilities that have been on Gap Inc.’s roadmap for far too long. I understand that we have surfaced these issues before and what I would say is simply. This work has been derailed for too long and it is imperative that we get after it in earnest. The need for change is permeating the organization and I'm very pleased that our teams are embracing the work and behaviors needed to get us there. The leadership team is committed to getting the work done and have put structure, process, and leadership accountability in place to ensure that we do. Now, let me give you a little more specific insight to the actions that we’ve been taking: First, we took immediate action to improve our near-term execution and brand performance. We have moved quickly and effectively at clearing excess inventory, improving assortment particularly at Old Navy and Gap, resulting in share gains in both women’s and baby in Q1. The company delivered over 600 basis points of adjusted operating margin expansion compared to last year, driven by significantly improved gross margin, from the reduction of excessive air freight expense and improved promotional activity, as well as adjusted SG&A leverage.…

Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Alex Straton from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Great. Thanks so much for taking my question. I have a couple that are probably best answered by Katrina. So both related to revenue. So on the quarter, is there any color you guys can give us on how it trended? Was it consistent? Did it strengthen or weaken as you got to the total results? And then on the 2Q guidance, it looks like you're assuming a worsening at the midpoint from the first quarter levels. Does that mean that you've seen a slowing in the business quarter-to-date? And is there any particular segment driving that? Thanks a lot.

Hi Alex, thanks for the question. So I think on your first question, I would say, we are obviously pleased that we were able to deliver on our expectations in the first quarter for revenue. And what we observed, I think, is largely in line with what we've heard others report, which is that February was quite strong and probably benefited from the fact that it was warm everywhere. And then in March, we definitely saw a similar weakening to what I think you've heard articulated, largely as a result of the regional bank situation that was playing out and the impact that, that had to consumers as they tightened in March. And then a little bit of a recovery in moderation in April, but we were navigating the lower tax return. So again, delivered the quarter, but what we're observing is a much choppier environment for the way that the consumer is reacting to the news and how that's impacting the way they spend. As it relates to Q2 then, we have seen a little bit of that softness continue into May. But what I would say is that that's considered in the outlook we just provided. And the reason why we gave a range for Q2 is that we're trying to provide for whatever scenarios could potentially play out with some of the choppiness that we're seeing out there, and if there are situations where the consumer contracts. So hopefully, that's helpful, but that's how we're thinking about it.

Super helpful. Good luck. Katrina O’Connell: Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Matthew Boss from JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Great, thanks. So Bob, you cited market share gains at the Old Navy brand, maybe could you just expand on trends that you're seeing in that business and how you feel regarding the balance today in your assortment, maybe relative to what you see driving the softer Athleta performance?

Yes, I mean, we're certainly pleased to see the momentum carry in to drive the market share gains, and as you heard us point to a little bit in our last conversations, women, in particular, were really strong. We cited some examples like pocket dresses and so forth. And that really has spilled over into several other categories. But as I think you were sort of referencing, it's really where our mind is as well. We still see the brand's over assorted from where we wanted to be. And again, that's just part of this transition that we're working through. But we've continued to see good gains in and around categories that we'll know or we believe that we'll continue to see greater strength in. The brand itself is in a period right now, again, making a lot of those adjustments coming out of cleaning up its inventory, getting rid of the pack and hold and so forth. And I think the kind of performance that we'll see going forward will add a little bit more clarity around the categories in particular that we believe the brand will really thrive on long-term. But right now, I'm happy with the progress, and again, to see the kind of gains help us with some momentum. Look, on Athleta, it's just really clear that we walked away a little bit too far from our performance DNA. Definitely had some misses in and around product specifics, silhouettes, color and even just some of the styling, et cetera. And that really, again, gave us a big challenge relative to that customer, which is coming in for. Although our bottoms continue to be really strong, we have to be able to capitalize on a lot more than that. And everything that, that brand stands for, for that customer, we're not backing down from at all. The power of she, the emotion in the brand, performance, why we are moving aggressively to get in more aggressively, and like running, yoga, some of those areas that we know have been real big misses for us. It's what that team right now is really focused on. And as we commented in our remarks, I'm really pleased right now how the current team is making the most, if you will, out of everything we have that the customer is really resonating with. And we look forward to seeing that brand find its stride again, no pun intended. But we know -- you know how important that brand is to the company, and we're optimistic that we're going to get back where we need to be.

Your next question comes from the line of Brooke Roach from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Good afternoon and thank you for taking our question. Can you talk to the composition of your inventory today and your current ability to chase into products that are resonating with the consumer, how much chaseability do you have? And do you think that could potentially improve your performance into the back half of the year? And then similarly, Katrina, can you provide some updated comments on your outlook for free cash flow?

Go ahead and take the chase part, and I'll add to it, yes.

Sure. I mean I think, Brooke, we're really pleased with the fact that we were able get our inventories down to where they are not only on a one-year basis, but really back to 2019, being much more in line with what we consider to be healthy inventory levels. And I think you saw that show up in the gross margin performance. For the quarter where we were able to still offer a lot of value to the consumer, but we didn't have all the markdown cleanup from last year that we had to deal with, and so we were able to really clean up the overall margins. So we feel good about that piece. As it relates to chase, I think we've talked about this, we are now back to being able to reinstate our responsive capabilities. And a lot of the organizational structural changes that we made in the business will also help us really have better line of sight to end-to-end inventory management and allows us to get back to really chasing into trends that are working. I think what's different is that Old Navy is back to pre-pandemic levels of chase, if not slightly better. But now we have the capabilities across our brands, which is really nice to see. And so all of our brands should be able to be chasing inventory much closer to the consumer. I don't know if you wanted to add anything, Bobby?

No, I think you covered it well. I think, Brooke, the one thing that I would just highlight again from my seat is, look, I mean, supply chain capabilities is something that we've really long had as a core strength, and I would say that a few things got away from us a bit. We're back really capitalizing now on our vendors who work with us very strong collaboratively, helping us with consumer insights, engaging, if you will, with innovation and all of that, that moves through the pipeline. So to your question about our expectations around the back half, I would say the answer is yes, I mean, we believe that we're finding ourselves back where we've got great leverage points. We're seeing good success as we chase back in the product, and again, really getting back to that discipline and rigor in a very effective way. So I'm actually proud of that progress, really, quite proud.

And then, Brooke, as you asked, obviously, our discipline around inventory and expenses combined with better operating performance is giving us more confidence in our free cash flow outlook. I think you heard on the call that free cash flow was down $102 million in the quarter, which is very in line with our seasonality and back to a much more normalized level. In fact, that's a lower level of outflow than we normally see in Q1 based on the fact that we have such tight inventory and expenses. And certainly, our aspiration is to get back to generating free cash flow in the company through better operating performance. So more to come as we see where the year comes out.

Thank you very much. I’ll pass it on.

Your next question comes from the line of Lorraine Hutchinson from Bank of America Global Research. Your line is open.

Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm curious to hear more about the reduction in promotions at Old Navy. Can you talk about where margins are versus pre-COVID levels for that brand? And also what the reaction has been to some of your recent price increases?

Yes, Lorraine, thanks for your question. Interestingly, when we look at the composition of the margin benefit that we got in the quarter across all of our banners, again, the reduction in inventory has really allowed us to clean up the markdown piece of the business, which doesn't add a lot of customer value, right? That's just inventory that last year wasn't responded too well by the consumer, and we had to sell through given excess inventory, the wrong inventory. So the margin benefits coming from cleaning up that markdown, what that's allowing us to do is still promote, which is a better way to be offering value to the consumer, which is still important at this time. And that's true at Old Navy. As it relates to price increases, I would say, overall, we are not seeing a lot of adverse reaction to price increases. The team was very surgical around taking up prices on categories or items that are known to be important in the consumer's wardrobe right now, like wovens or pants, or our outstanding fashion items that just are so well that the customer has to have it. So I would say, as we look back, we feel very good about where the teams have priced up. And the promotions have remained rather competitive. As far as versus pre-pandemic, we're still better off than pre-pandemic.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Jonna Kim from Cowen & Company. Your line is open.

This is Neil Go filling in for Jonna today. Thanks for taking my question. Just kind of touching on this from your point earlier. Can you just give some more color on how that promotional environment has been, perhaps different income cohorts and demographics since that was one of the brighter spots? And then what are you assuming from a timing perspective for the rest of the year as we eventually enter the back-to-school period?

Yes, Neil, so I think what's interesting on our income cohorts is that it continues to be similar to what we've seen in the back half into Q1, which is when you look at markets where we have a demographic of a low-income consumer, we are certainly seeing those consumers contract their spending and being much more price-sensitive. In areas where we have the higher-income consumer, there's a lot less price sensitivity and they are still spending. So that dynamic has continued. And as of now, we'll see how that plays forward. But that's part of the reason why we have ranges of outcomes around our revenue performance is because we don't know what will happen as we head into the back half of the year and decide whether we will need to compete more or less. I think, so far, what we've seen, and maybe you've heard this more in the industry, is that as we just talked about, we've had to do less promotion to clear inventory because our inventories are so much more in line. And really, our promotions have been more focused on adding value to the consumer, which we hope will be more revenue-driving actions and less about clearing inventory.

Great. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Corey Tarlowe from Jefferies. Your line is open.

Hi, good afternoon. First, I'm wondering, Katrina, if you could just assess for us the health of the Gap store fleet. I think over the last two years, you've closed something like 370 stores. The segment actually comped positively this past quarter. So it would be helpful to just get some color there? And then just on the Old Navy improvement that you're witnessing, recognizing that there's still more work to do, maybe could you talk a little bit about what that work is and how far along or maybe what inning you think we're in, in terms of the Old Navy improvement?

Yes, Corey, as you say, the store fleet, we've worked aggressively on over the last three years during the COVID pandemic. And so as you say, overall, we have closed or will have closed by the end of this year, about 350 Gap and Banana stores, so both of our specialty fleets we've been working on. And do I think we're done? I don't know, but we are largely through the lion's share of the restructuring activity that had to be done. And I think as you say, that is showing up in the fact that the balance of the fleet that's remaining is relatively healthy. Now we need to continue to work on keeping that fleet healthy. But fundamentally right now, I think we feel pretty good with where we've positioned both our Gap and Banana Republic fleet. As it relates to Old Navy, I think you've heard us call out that we feel really good about the fact that we gained share in women's. I think we would say that we would like to keep seeing more momentum in men's and kids. And then within some of the categories, I think, active as an example, where we've gained a lot of share over a multiyear period, but we're seeing a little bit of reversion there, and there's probably some more work to do to get that assortment back to being current. But I don't know, Bobby, if you want to comment more on the Old Navy.

No. I mean, again, I think we're kind of indicating again, we're seeing it travel along the journey here, again, getting the assortment, really rationalize and balance the right way. And look, you guys realize this as well as we do, this is across all brands. But I mean, we design into the coolness to the brand relevance, the creative being right on fashion, and getting inventory under control, all the way. When we do that, we're always going to do a better job in driving brand relevance, maximizing marketing effectiveness. That certainly is true around the right promotional approach and balance for Old Navy, and in turn, I think, continue to allow it to produce the kind of margin that we want to see a structure to run with and compete with and get back again to really the essence of that brand. That brand has always been known for fun, if you will, and the brand itself is or the team is working around what future of fun looks like around that brand and how it differentiates itself in the marketplace. Staying close to the customer, you guys touched on it, and I'll just acknowledge it back. That's a value proposition that we know we compete in very aggressively. I like the work that the team is doing, the rigor they're putting in around the right diagnostics at every level, from whether it's online or in-store. This merchandising structure change, where we're moving ahead of commerce. So we're bringing together both the online and the in-store together around experience, and everything we're doing from a product and service is all a part of these improvements that, again, we're counting on, and Old Navy, in particular, probably one of the bigger beneficiaries as we land all that work.

Great. Thank you very much and best of luck.

Your next question comes from the line of Mark Altschwager from Baird. Your line is open.

Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. I wanted to follow-up on the promo topic as well and gross margin. It seems like the promo recapture was really the key driver to the upside to expectations in Q1, at least relative to our model, and I think how many were looking at Q1 gross margin. Is that magnitude of recapture a good run rate to think about as we move through the next few quarters? And just given your comment about promo shifting more to being used to engage the customers versus clearing inventory. If we were to see some moderation in that Q1 result, I mean, would it be fair to think that we could maybe see some incremental top line benefit as we move through the year? Thank you.

Yes, Mark, it's such a good question, and one I'm really glad you asked. So the upside in Q1, as you say, we saw modest upside from freight, which we talked about, but really, the bigger upside, I think, came from less discounting. I would not use the 380 basis points of benefit from discounting as a run rate. We just said that in Q2, about 200 -- at least 200 basis points of the inflationary pressure will get offset in discount. So that already nods to a moderation. And then for the full-year, we said at least 100 basis points in that discount. And you could ask why wouldn't we see more. I think right now, what we're saying is that's the way we'd say maybe a floor of what we think that's worth. We'll see how hard we have to play in Q2 and beyond, depending on where the consumer goes and whether that shows up in revenue or whether that shows up just in us having to play harder to be able to compete as we move through the year. So I'm glad you asked the question, those do moderate as we get through the year. And again, depending on where the customer lands, we'll see whether there's upside there or not.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Paul Kearney from Barclays. Your line is open.

Hey, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. Can you talk more about some of the efforts to reduce costs and simplify? How will the changes you've made improve responsiveness throughout the organization? And are there additional levers to drive sustainable savings as you rebase this year? Thanks.

Paul, it's Bobby. I'll start and see if Katrina wants to add on to it. But look, I think it almost goes without saying, getting rid of layers from 12 to eight, the effect on span of control, it's really clear that where we found ourselves was really slowing down and impacting our ability to be quick on decision-making, as well as certainly identifying where we've had productivity misses and the like. So that work, I don't think should be understated. It's difficult work that's gone on. But we found ourselves with an SG&A, obviously, that was untenable, not one that we would look to continue to try and compete with. So pulling out the cost is relevant and it's meaningful. But again, I'd just go back and point to the big payback and unlock here is, again, as I made in my -- I mentioned in my comments, the big payback is when we're going to start showing up more informed, more in tune with the customer, being driven by consumer insights, more responsive and the like. So we're not doing anything here other than I hope what you caught is we're in pursuit of a mindset change and a cultural shift that keeps us in this mode all the time of continuous improvement and looking at how we continue to not just cut the cost, but again, get ourselves where we're far more responsible or responsive, agile and, again, a lot more competitive. Just one more time, I'd say difficult work in the short time that I have been here, although they feel short. I'm really pleased with, again, the way the team has embraced this change. Any of us that have watched this level of change happen, we know it takes a lot. And right now, I think our quarter results indicate some good -- show some good indication of where we have reason to be pleased with part of it, but we have a lot further to go and a lot more work to do.

And Paul, I think to add on what I would say is regarding further savings, right now, we're really pleased with the cost savings that are coming from these organizational changes as well as some early savings we got last year in marketing through some contract negotiations and a little bit of tech. But marketing and technology, I think, are the two areas that we've identified we have further opportunity in. And now that we have our organizational structures in place and those teams get settled, we'll begin the work to really understand what the next opportunity will look like. So more to come when we get through the organizational change and are able to sort of move our focus to those next items of opportunity.

Very helpful answers. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Janet Kloppenburg from JJK Research. Your line is open.

Hi, everybody. Congratulations on the improvement. Nice to see. Katrina, on the promotion and less recapture that assumption for the second quarter, is that a trend that you're seeing right now? And do you feel, even with your inventories down as much as they are, that you've had to step up promotions? And I also wondered, in your guidance for the second quarter and for the year, what the assumption is on kids and men's? Do you expect those categories to improve? Or do you expect that pressure to be maintained as we move through the year? And lastly, I wondered if there was any news on denim and how that might be affecting your back-to-school outlook? And one last question, sorry, is just on where we should expect inventories to trend going forward? Sorry. Thanks.

No worries. So on the gross margin and promotional trend, I mean, I'm not really going to comment, it's very early in the quarter, so we'll see. We've given you a sense for the year -- I mean, for the quarter and the year where we think those things will land. And so we'll see how it goes. Memorial Day is coming up, that's usually a big kickoff to summer, and so we'll see how that all goes. On the kids and men's thing, kids in general, the marketplace has been down. So while our kids business has been modestly under pressure, we've been gaining share at Old Navy. And so we'll see how that goes. But there's sort of a range of possible outcomes for both kids and men's as we look to the second quarter and the second half, all of which are contemplated in the guidance we gave. And then on the denim front, we've been gaining share in denim all year, and we gained share again in Q1, so we're relatively pleased with what the teams have been doing around denim. And I guess, we'll see how that plays out in back-to-school. But at least we've got some good momentum heading into back-to-school in that category. There was a fourth one I can't remember. What was it?

It’s inventory, Katrina. Inventories.

Inventories. Yes, so we said in my experience or I said in my speech that we do expect for inventories to be down meaningfully more than the sales guide. So we'll see, but we did end up down 27%, and that will be our goal is to keep those inventories well under control.

Thank you and good luck.

Thank you.

Your last question will come from Marni Shapiro from The Retail Tracker. Your line is open.

Hey, guys, congratulations on some really nice improvements in the stores. I just wanted to focus a little bit on Athleta again because I know this is a growth vehicle for you and important as you're searching for leadership there. Could you give us an estimated time line of when you think the changes with color, print and the better balance start to really show up. Will it be there for back-to-school and the fall season and for winter gifting? And then if we could also just think forward, do you need new leadership in place to start innovating because even this is a part of the market that's heavy on innovation, the performance part of the market. And while I like a lot of the styles you have, some of them have become a little stale, while other brands are advancing in this moment. So I'm just curious if you could talk about those two parts of the business?

Let me to start?

Sure.

First of all, thanks for being so kind, Marni. I would say that -- to answer to your question kind of from the bottom back, new leadership to really start seeing the innovation, I would not take anything away from current team. Again, our focus has really, I think, enabled a lot of moves and changes there. We've already seen wonderful contributions from Julia Leach who we added as kind of press perspective on the creative side. You do understand obviously quite well because of the question that fabrications and other things really are a little bit longer pipe for this brand. That said, the brand is taking every opportunity we can, where if it was an opportunity for raw material to be adjusted a bit to land something for fall, perhaps holiday, there are opportunities being engineered into that. But to go much farther than that, I think that would be too aggressive. At the same time, this seems amazing me right now, everything that they're doing to come up to maximize opportunity. What's most important, obviously, here is, again, we know what this brand stands for. We know what looks for every time she comes in, you just highlighted it again. And it will take us a while to get back where we need to be. But hopefully, we will exceed your expectations and mine.

I hope so. Can I just ask one follow-up. You've been promotional, obviously, to clear out the inventory, and it's going to take some time to fix this. Even within the store today, are there things that she's buying that don't need a promotion? And is there a risk that she gets used to 20% off, 30% off, 40% off there? So how careful do you have to be over the next couple of months in dealing with this?

Go ahead, Katrina.

Yes, Marni, I mean, I think that's a great question. We certainly see that there are core performance bottoms and there are fashion styles that don't need a promotion, and the team is being very cognizant on trying not to train her for promotion by utilizing markdowns better to be more targeted. And -- but there is a reality of sort of where we are today and where we need to go. The ultimate goal will be to get that brand back to not relying on promotions to be able to drive the business, but drive the business through its fashion authority and its innovation and its positioning. And that is what the team is working towards long-term. So it's a great question and one that the team is definitely focused on.

Tell the team, I welcome back the new product. Enjoy best of luck for the next quarter. Katrina O’Connell: Thanks, Marni.

Thank you. That does conclude our conference call. You may now disconnect.