Gap announces plans to close 19 stores in UK and Ireland

9 June 2021, 16:39

Gap has announced that it will be closing 19 of its stores in the UK and Ireland, once the leases are up at the end of July.

The US-based retailer did not say which stores would be closing or how many jobs could be affected as a result.

Though, once those leases are up, there will only be 50 stand alone and outlet stores still going in the UK.

The group made it clear that, due to a slump in trade, they would continue to assess its current portfolio as part of the strategic review they started last year.

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This comes after the company said in October 2020 that they could potentially be shutting down all of their UK, Ireland, France and Italy stores.

A spokeswoman for the company said: "We are proposing to close 19 Gap stores in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland that have leases ending at the end of July 2021.

"These leases are not being extended due to the strategic review that we have under way."

Gap is still "keen to maintain a presence in Europe", however, it may predominantly focus on online instead.

The clothes store is the latest to be leaving some high streets, with Topshop having been bought out by Asos in February and Debenhams having been acquired by Boohoo, also going online-only.