US fashion giant Gap has confirmed it plans to shut all its 81 stores within the UK and Ireland and go online-only.
The firm said it might close all its stores “in a phased manner” between the top of August and therefore the end of September.
This includes 19 stores that were already scheduled to shut in July as their leases were expiring.
The company has not disclosed what percentage employees the closures will affect, but will shortly start a consultation process with the staff.
The firm said it had been “not exiting the united kingdom market” and would still offer a web-based store when all the shops had closed.
A Gap spokesperson said the choice followed a strategic review of its European business.
As a result, Gap is additionally looking to dump its stores in France and Italy.
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Analysis box by Emma Simpson, business correspondent
Gap was an enormous hit when it first opened within the UK back in 1987, famous for its hoodies and sweatshirts. But in recent years, it’s struggled to remain relevant, resorting to prolific discounting to tug shoppers in. That left Gap during a weak position to face up to the turmoil of a worldwide pandemic.
It launched a strategic review of its entire European operations last autumn, warning that it had been considering closing all its UK stores. Just a couple of weeks ago, 19 store closures were announced – now the remainder of them will close also .
Gap blamed what it described as market dynamics – in other words, the large shift to internet shopping. It’s going online-only, a bit like Debenhams and Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia group. It’s yet one more famous name bidding a retreat from our High Streets, adding to the challenge of what to try to to with empty shops.
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Kate Hardcastle, a consumer and retail expert says the closure is because Gap did not continue with the competition by not offering enough variety or being as cheap as competitors like Primark.
“The brands you would like to buy with in physical retail need to have such a lot quite just products on offer, they need to possess purpose,” she says.
“It just didn’t desire a corporation that had embraced the new consumer,” she adds.
The company said it had been in negotiations with another firm to require over all of its French stores.
In Italy, Gap said it had been in discussions with a partner for the potential acquisition of the stores there.
“We believe Gap’s global brand power. We are executing against Gap’s Power Plan and partnering to amplify our global reach,” the spokesperson said.
“We aren’t exiting the united kingdom market. we’ll still run and operate our Gap e-commerce business within the uk and Republic of eire .”
A source on the brink of the corporate said that it had seen rapid uptake of internet buying its clothes within the UK since the pandemic-enforced lockdowns.
The move comes because the latest blow to UK High Streets, already reeling from the collapse of the Debenhams and Arcadia retail empires during the pandemic.
The Debenhams brand continues online after being bought by retailer Boohoo for £55m in January – and now Gap has added to the ranks of bricks-and-mortar clothing chains that have moved to cyberspace.