Tag Archives: UK retail

Gap to close all 81 UK and Ireland stores and move online-only to ‘meet shoppers where they are’

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Fashion retailer, Gap is exiting the UK high street, with plans to close all 81 stores in the UK and Ireland, the American company has confirmed this week.

The decision has been struck following a review of the fashion brand’s operations across Europe and will see the company shift to online only in the markets affected. As a result, all 81 stores across the UK and Ireland will be shut ‘in a phased manner’ from the end of August through to the end of September this year.

The move is part of the firm’s strategy to ‘meet customers where they are shopping’, detailing its plans to become a ‘digital first business’ as it now begins the search for a partner to help it drive its business online.

“In the United Kingdom and Europe, we are going to maintain our Gap online business,” said the company in a statement issue this week.

“However, due to market dynamics in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, we shared with our team today that we are proposing to close all company-operated Gap Specialty and Gap Outlet stores in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland in a phased manner from the end of August through the end of September 2021.

“We are thoughtfully moving through the consultation process with our European team, and we will provide support and transition assistance for our colleagues as we look to wind down stores.”

The news is seen as another blow to the UK high street which has suffered a number of losses over the last 18 months, including brands Debenhams which closed its last remaining stores on May 15th this year and was bought by Boohoo for £55m in January to operate as an online-only, and Arcadia, the group behind Topshop, Burton, and Dorothy Perkins which closed 31 stores this year after falling into administration in November 2020.

Several of its brands were bought by online retailer ASOS, including Topshop and Topman.

John Lewis confirms eight stores will not reopen after lockdown lifts in April

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The department store chain, John Lewis has confirmed plans to not reopen eight of its 42 UK stores when the current lockdown lifts on April 12th this year. The move will put more than 1,400 jobs at risk.

The retailer’s stores in Aberdeen, Sheffield, Peterborough, and York will remain closed, as well as four of its smaller ‘At Home’ stores in Tunbridge Wells, Ashford, Basingstoke, and Chester. The planned closures will threaten the future of a total of 1,465 roles with the firm.

The latest development echoes of similar actions taken by the department store chain when its kept eight other stores permanently closed after the first lockdown last year. As of April 12th this year, John Lewis’ estate of department stores will stand at 34.

John Lewis has pointed towards the ‘significant shift towards online shopping in recent years’ as the reasoning behind the latest closures, adding that the decision followed “substantial research to identify and cater for new customer shopping habits in different parts of the country.” According to the team, the eight stores were already “financially challenged prior to the pandemic.”

In a statement, the company said that it believes the online shopping trend “will not materially reverse” and that the performance of these eight stores “can be substantially improved.”

Previously, the group has voiced its expectations that at least three fifths of revenues will be generated online, even when shops are trading normally again.

“Having fewer bigger stores allows us to invest significantly to improve our remaining ones,” said the company. It will also test new, smaller, local shops along with stores within its Waitrose supermarkets.

John Lewis to axe a further 1,500 head office jobs in cost-saving plans

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John Lewis is to axe a further 1,500 jobs at its headquarters in central London as the UK retailer continues to look for means to cut £300 million in costs and prepare its operations for a digital-centric era.

The company has also confirmed today that Patrick Lewis, the group’s finance director since 2015 will be leaving.

Sharon White, chairman of the partnership, said that losing partners was “incredibly hard as an employee-owned business” but added that “we must be agile and able to adapt quickly to the changing needs of our customers”.

The Financial Times reports that the latest round of cuts follows a cull of 1,800 jobs when the group decided against reopening eight stores following the end of the UK’s first national lockdown in June, with some redundancies associated with the outsourcing of the group’s IT functions.

The cuts are part of a cost-saving plan drawn up before the pandemic and announced by Dame Sharon’s predecessor, Charlie Mayfield in October last year. Their implementation, which will be completed by April next year, was delayed by Covid-19.

John Lewis has also shored up its balance sheet by paying off expensive debt, selling some store freeholds, cutting bonuses for partners to historic lows and closing its generous final salary pension scheme.

Mr Lewis will be succeeded as finance director by Bérangère Michel, currently executive director of customer service and a former finance executive at Royal Mail.

“Patrick told me a while ago of his wish to leave the partnership to seek new opportunities. I’m very grateful to him for agreeing to stay until we’d been able to identify a successor,” Dame Sharon added.