Item 1 - Business

General

The Company was incorporated in the State of California in July 1969 and was reincorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware in May 1988.

We are a global specialty retailer operating retail and outlet stores selling casual apparel, accessories, and personal care products for men, women and children under the Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy brands. We operate stores in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Japan. In addition, our U.S. customers may shop online at gap.com, bananarepublic.com, and oldnavy.com.

We design virtually all of our products, which are manufactured by independent sources, and sell them under three brands:

Gap. Founded in 1969, Gap stores offer extensive selections of classically styled, high quality, casual apparel at moderate price points. Products range from wardrobe basics such as denim, khakis and T-shirts to fashion apparel, accessories and personal care products for men and women, ages teen through adult. We entered the children’s apparel market with the introduction of GapKids in 1986 and babyGap in 1989. These stores offer casual apparel and accessories in the tradition of Gap style and quality for children, ages newborn through pre-teen. Launched in 1998, GapBody offers women’s underwear, sleepwear, swimwear and personal care products.

Banana Republic. Acquired in 1983 with two stores, Banana Republic now offers sophisticated, fashionable collections of dress-casual and tailored apparel, shoes and accessories for men and women at higher price points than Gap. Banana Republic products range from apparel, including intimate apparel, to personal care products.

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Old Navy. We launched Old Navy in 1994 to address the market for value-priced family apparel. Old Navy offers broad selections of apparel, shoes and accessories for adults, children and infants as well as other items, including personal care products, in an innovative, exciting shopping environment. Old Navy also offers a line of maternity and plus sizes in its stores.

As of January 29, 2005, we operated a total of 2,994 store locations. For more information on the number of stores by brand and region, see the table in our Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations included as Part II, Item 7 of this form by reference to page 25 of our 2004 Annual Report to Shareholders.

We established Gap Online, a web-based store located at www.gap.com, in 1997. Products comparable to those carried in Gap, GapKids and babyGap stores can be purchased on-line. Banana Republic introduced Banana Republic Online, a web-based store located at www.BananaRepublic.com, in 1999, which offers products comparable to those carried in the store collections. In 2000, we established Old Navy Online, a web-based store located at www.oldnavy.com. Old Navy Online also offers apparel and accessories comparable to those carried in the store collections. Our online businesses are offered as an extension of our store experience and are intended to strengthen our relationship with our customers.

Certain financial information about international operations is set forth under the heading “Segment Information” in Note M to Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, incorporated by reference in Item 8 – Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.

Store Operations

Our stores offer a shopper-friendly environment with an assortment of casual apparel and accessories which emphasize style, quality and good value. The range of merchandise displayed in each store varies depending on the selling season and the size and location of the store.

Our stores generally are open seven days per week (where permitted by law) and most holidays. All sales are tendered for cash, personal checks, debit cards, or credit cards, including Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy private label credit cards which are issued by a third party. We also issue and redeem gift cards through our brands.

Merchandise Vendors

We purchase merchandise on average from approximately 700 vendors with facilities in approximately 50 countries. No vendor accounted for more than 5% of the dollar amount of our fiscal 2004 purchases. Of our merchandise sold during fiscal 2004, approximately 2% of all units (representing approximately 2% of total cost) was produced domestically while the remaining 98% of all units (representing approximately 98% of total cost) was made outside the United States. Approximately 18% of our total merchandise units (representing approximately 19% of total cost) was made in China, with the remainder coming from more than 50 other countries. Any event causing disruption of imports from China or other foreign countries, including the imposition of additional import restrictions, could have a material adverse effect on our operations. Substantially all of our foreign purchases of merchandise are negotiated and paid for in U.S. dollars. Also see the section entitled “Certain Additional Business Risk Factors – Trade matters and IT system changes may disrupt our supply chain” below in this Item 1.

Seasonal Business

Our business follows a seasonal pattern, with sales peaking over a total of about 13 weeks during the Back-to-School (August) and Holiday (November through December) periods. During fiscal 2004, these periods accounted for approximately 32% of our net sales.

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Brand Building

Our continued ability to develop new brands and continually change and evolve our existing brands is a key to our success. We believe our distinct brands are among our most important assets. All aspects of brand development from product design and distribution, to marketing, merchandising and shopping environments are controlled by us. We continue to invest in the development of our brands through consumer research and advertising. We have also made investments to enhance the customer experience through the expansion and remodeling of existing stores, the closure of under-performing stores, and a focus on customer service.

Advertising

We place print ads in major metropolitan newspapers and their Sunday magazines, major news weeklies and lifestyle and fashion magazines. Our ads also appear in various outdoor venues, such as mass transit posters, exterior bus panels, bus shelters and billboards. We have also run TV ads for Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic and radio ads for Old Navy. We plan to continue our investments in advertising and marketing in 2005. There can be no assurances that these investments will result in increased sales or profitability.

Employees

As of January 29, 2005, we had a work force of approximately 152,000 employees, which includes a combination of part and full-time employees. We hire temporary employees primarily during the peak Back-to-School and Holiday seasons.

To remain competitive in the apparel retail industry we must attract, develop and retain skilled employees, including executives. Competition for such personnel is intense. Our success is dependent to a significant degree on the continued contributions of key employees. The inability to develop effective plans to motivate, develop and retain key personnel could lead to unexpected loss of personnel and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. Also see the section entitled “Certain Additional Business Risk Factors – We must successfully gauge fashion trends and changing consumer preferences to succeed” below in this Item 1.

Trademarks and Service Marks

Gap, GapKids, babyGap, GapBody, Banana Republic and Old Navy trademarks and service marks, and certain other trademarks, have been registered, or are the subject of pending trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and with the registries of many foreign countries and/or are protected by common law.

Certain Additional Business Risk Factors

We must successfully gauge fashion trends and changing consumer preferences to succeed.

Our success is largely dependent upon our ability to gauge the fashion tastes of our customers and to provide merchandise that satisfies customer demand in a timely manner. The global specialty retail business fluctuates according to changes in consumer preferences dictated, in part, by fashion and season. To the extent we misjudge the market for our merchandise or the products suitable for local markets, our sales will be adversely affected and the markdowns required to move the resulting excess inventory will adversely affect our operating results. In prior years, a disproportionate part of our past product offerings may have been too fashion-forward for our broad and diverse customer base. While we believe our current strategies and initiatives appropriately address these issues, merchandise misjudgments could have a material adverse effect on our image with our customers and on our operating results.

Our ability to anticipate and effectively respond to changing fashion trends depends in part on our ability to attract and retain key personnel in our design, merchandising, marketing and other functions. Competition for this personnel is intense, and we cannot be sure that we will be able to attract and retain a sufficient number of qualified personnel in future periods. Also see the section entitled “Employees” above in this Item 1.

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Fluctuations in the global specialty retail business especially affect the inventory owned by apparel retailers, since merchandise usually must be ordered well in advance of the season and frequently before fashion trends are evidenced by customer purchases. In addition, the cyclical nature of the global specialty retail business requires us to carry a significant amount of inventory, especially prior to peak selling seasons when we build up our inventory levels. We must enter into contracts for the purchase and manufacture of merchandise well in advance of the applicable selling season. As a result, we are vulnerable to demand and pricing shifts and to suboptimal selection and timing of merchandise purchases. In the past, we have not always predicted our customers’ preferences and acceptance levels of our fashion items with accuracy. In addition, lead times for many of our purchases are long, which may make it more difficult for us to respond rapidly to new or changing fashion trends or consumer acceptance for our products. If sales do not meet expectations, too much inventory may cause excessive markdowns and, therefore, lower than planned margins. Also see the section entitled “We experience fluctuations in our comparable store sales and margins” below in this Item 1.

Our business is highly competitive and depends on consumer spending patterns.

The global specialty retail industry is highly competitive. We compete with national and local department stores, specialty and discount store chains, independent retail stores and internet businesses that market similar lines of merchandise. We face a variety of competitive challenges including:

Our business is sensitive to a number of factors that influence the levels of consumer spending, including political and economic conditions such as recessionary environments, the levels of disposable consumer income, consumer debt, interest rates and consumer confidence. Declines in consumer spending on apparel and accessories could have an adverse effect on our operating results.

We are also faced with competition in European, Japanese and Canadian markets from established regional and national chains. Our success in these markets depends on determining a sustainable profit formula to build brand loyalty and gain market share in these especially challenging retail environments. If international business is not successful or if we cannot effectively take advantage of international growth opportunities, our results of operations could be adversely affected.

The market for prime real estate is competitive.

Our ability to effectively obtain real estate to open new stores depends upon the availability of real estate that meets our criteria and our ability to negotiate terms that meet our financial targets. In addition, we must be able to effectively renew our existing store leases. Failure to secure real estate locations adequate to meet annual targets as well as effectively manage the profitability of our existing fleet of stores could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

We experience fluctuations in our comparable store sales and margins.

Our continued success depends, in part, upon our ability to continue to further improve sales, as well as both gross margins and operating margins. Our comparable store sales have fluctuated significantly in the past on an annual, quarterly and monthly basis, and we expect that they will continue to fluctuate in the future. For example,

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over the past three years, our quarterly comparable store sales have ranged from a decrease of 17% in the first fiscal quarter of fiscal 2002 to an increase of 12% in the first fiscal quarter of 2003 to a decrease of 3% in the last fiscal quarter of 2004. A variety of factors affect comparable store sales, including fashion trends, competition, current economic conditions, the timing of release of new merchandise and promotional events, changes in our merchandise mix, the success of marketing programs and weather conditions. These factors may cause our comparable store sales results to differ materially from prior periods and from expectations. Over the past five years our reported gross margins have ranged from 37% in fiscal 2000 to 30% in fiscal 2001 to 34% in fiscal 2002 to 38% in fiscal 2003 to 39% in fiscal 2004. In addition, over the past five years our reported operating margins, have ranged from 10.1% in fiscal 2000 to 2.2% in fiscal 2001 to 7.0% in fiscal 2002 to 11.9% in fiscal 2003 to 12.2% in fiscal 2004.

Our ability to deliver healthy comparable store sales results and margins depends in large part on accurately forecasting demand and fashion trends, selecting effective marketing techniques, providing an appropriate mix of merchandise for our broad and diverse customer base, managing inventory effectively, using more effective pricing strategies, and optimizing store performance by closing under performing stores. Any failure to meet the expectations of investors, security analysts or credit rating agencies in one or more future periods could reduce the market price of our common stock and cause our credit ratings to decline.

Changes in our credit ratings may have a negative or positive impact on our financing costs and structure in future periods.

In November 2001, we issued $500 million aggregate principal amount of debt securities of which only $138 million remains outstanding at an original annual interest rate of 8.80 %, due December 15, 2008 (the “notes”). The interest rate payable on the notes is subject to adjustment from time to time if either Moody’s Investors Service (“Moody’s”) or Standard & Poor’s Rating Service (“Standard & Poor’s”) reduces the rating ascribed to the notes below Baa2, in the case of Moody’s, or below BBB+, in the case of Standard & Poor’s. The interest rate on the notes increases by 0.25 % for each rating category downgrade by either rating agency. In addition, if Moody’s or Standard & Poor’s subsequently increases the rating ascribed to the notes, the ongoing interest rate then payable on the notes decreases by 0.25% for each rating category upgrade by either rating agency up to Baa2, in the case of Moody’s, or BBB+, in the case of Standard & Poor’s. In no event will the interest rate be reduced below the original interest rate payable on the notes. As a result of downgrades to our long-term credit ratings, the interest rate payable by us on the notes increased to 10.05% per annum as of January 29, 2005. On February 10, 2005, Standard & Poor’s upgraded our long term credit rating which will decrease the interest rate payable on the notes to 9.80% effective June 15, 2005. Given our current credit ratings, we do not have meaningful access to the commercial paper market. Any future reduction in our long-term senior unsecured credit rating could result in reduced access to the capital markets and higher interest costs on future financings.

For further information on our credit rating including outlook see the section entitled “Credit Facility and Debt” in our Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations included as Part II, Item 7 of this form by reference to page 31 our 2004 Annual Report to Shareholders.

Trade matters and IT systems changes may disrupt our supply chain.

We cannot predict whether any of the countries in which our merchandise currently is manufactured or may be manufactured in the future will be subject to additional trade restrictions imposed by the U.S. and other foreign governments, including the likelihood, type or effect of any such restrictions. Trade restrictions, including increased tariffs or quotas, embargoes, safeguards and customs restrictions, against apparel items, as well as U.S. or foreign labor strikes, work stoppages or boycotts, could increase the cost or reduce the supply of apparel available to us and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Although the quota system established by the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing was completely phased out for World Trade Organization countries effective January 1, 2005, there can be no assurances that restrictions will not be reestablished for certain categories in specific countries. We are unable to determine the impact of the changes to the quota system on our global sourcing operations, including China. Our sourcing operations may be adversely affected by trade limits or political and financial instability resulting in the disruption of trade from exporting countries, significant fluctuation in the value of the U.S. dollar against foreign currencies, restrictions on the transfer of funds and/or other trade disruptions.

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Our success depends, in large part, on our ability to source and distribute merchandise efficiently. We continue to evaluate and are currently implementing modifications and upgrades to our information technology systems supporting the product pipeline, including merchandise planning and forecasting, inventory and price management. Modifications involve replacing legacy systems with successor systems or making changes to legacy systems. We are aware of inherent risks associated with replacing and changing these core systems, including accurately capturing data and possibly encountering supply chain disruptions, and believe we are taking appropriate action to mitigate the risks through testing, training and staging implementation as well as securing appropriate commercial contracts with third-party vendors supplying such replacement technologies. The launch of these successor systems will take place in a phased approach over an approximate five-year period that began in 2002. Although we are on track with the replacement of our systems, there can be no assurances that we will successfully launch these new systems as planned or that they will occur without supply chain or other disruptions. Supply chain disruptions, if not anticipated and appropriately mitigated, could have a material adverse effect on our operations.

We are implementing certain other changes to our IT systems that may disrupt operations.

In addition to modifying and replacing our systems related to sourcing and distributing merchandise, we continue to evaluate and are currently implementing modifications and upgrades to our information technology systems for point of sales (cash registers), real estate, and human resources. Modifications involve replacing legacy systems with successor systems, making changes to legacy systems or acquiring new systems with new functionality. We are aware of inherent risks associated with replacing these systems, including accurately capturing data and system disruptions, and believe we are taking appropriate action to mitigate the risks through testing, training and staging implementation as well as securing appropriate commercial contracts with third-party vendors supplying such replacement technologies. The launch of these successor systems will take place in a phased approach over an approximate five year period that began in 2002. In 2004 we completed installation of our new point of sales system in all of our domestic stores, implemented our global financial systems, and replaced our lease management systems. Although we are on track with replacement of our systems, there can be no assurances that we will successfully launch the remaining systems as planned or that they will occur without disruptions to operations. Information technology system disruptions, if not anticipated and appropriately mitigated, could have a material adverse effect on our operations.

Our growth is dependent on strategy development.

Our ability to grow our existing brands and develop or identify new growth opportunities depends in part on our ability to appropriately identify, develop and effectively execute strategies and initiatives. Failure to effectively identify, develop and execute strategies and initiatives may lead to increased operating costs without offsetting benefits and could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

Available Information

We make available on our website, www.gapinc.com, under “Financials & Media, SEC Filings” free of charge, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file or furnish such materials to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).

Our Code of Business Conduct, Board of Directors Committee Charters (Audit and Finance, Compensation and Management Development, Governance, Nominating and Social Responsibility Committees), and Corporate Governance Guidelines are also available on our website. The Code of Business Conduct can be found at www.gapinc.com, under “Financials & Media, Corporate Compliance, Code of Business Conduct.” Any amendments and waivers to the code will also be available on the website. The Committee Charters and Governance Guidelines can be found on our website under “Financials & Media, Corporate Governance.” All of these documents are also available in print to any shareholder who requests them.

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Executive Officers of the Registrant

The following are our executive officers:

Name, Age, Position and Principal Occupation During Past Five Years:

Nick Cullen , 50, Executive Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer since October 2003; President, North America Supply, Diageo PLC, a division of a global beer, wine and spirits distributor from 2000 to 2003; Director UK Operations Diageo PLC from 1999 to 2000.

Donald Fisher , 76, Founder and Chairman Emeritus since 2004; Chairman of the Company, 1969-2004.

Anne Gust , 47, Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer since 2000 and Chief Compliance Officer since 1998; Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Legal, Global Compliance and Corporate Administration from 1999 to 2000. Joined in 1991.

Jenny Ming , 49, President, Old Navy Brand since 1998. Joined in 1986.

Byron Pollitt , 53, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since January 2003; Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts from 1999 to 2003.

Paul Pressler , 48, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company since 2002; Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, an entertainment company, 2000-2002; President of Walt Disney Attractions, an entertainment company, 1998-2000.

Eva Sage-Gavin , 46, Executive Vice President Human Resources since March 2003; Senior Vice President Human Resources of Sun Microsystems, Inc. from 2000 to 2003; Senior Vice President Human Resources of Disney Consumer Products from 1997 to 2000.