Reportedly Gap is closing all the stores in UK and Ireland as sales of the company fall globally for the fashion brand. It is being said that Gap will close all 81 stores present in tthe UK and Ireland by the end of September but will continue to sell clothes online. Gap attributed the move towards “market dynamics”.
According to the company in a statement said, “ The e-commerce business will continue to grow and we want to meet our customers where they are shopping and we are becoming a first digital business and we are looking for a partner to help drive our online business.”
Gap will shut the stores in UK and Ireland in late August and late September. Gap opened its first UK store in 1987 and its first store in Ireland in 2006.
The company posted its first-quarter global net sales of $4 billion, up 8% compared to 2019, but the success of its Old Navy and Athleta brands drove this increase.
The first-quarter revenue of Gap fell to 16% compared to 2019. In that comparison, net sales grew 25% for Old Navy and 56 % for Athleta. Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said that “ “Gap was decades ahead in offering the athleisure styles which have become so popular during the pandemic”
She added in a research note on Thursday that, “the brand has struggled to compete with centers owing several rivals in the casual place and particularly given languishing footfall in shopping centres and on main streets where many of its stores are based.”
The brand’s physical exit will give a deal fresh blow to Britain’s main streets, which are already reeling from the closure of Debenhams.
