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HIGH STREET RETAIL giant Gap has announced it will be closing all stores in the UK and Ireland by the end of 2021.
The company said it intends to take business online “in a phased manner” from the end of August through to the end of September this year.
It added it would provide “support and transition assistance” to colleagues following the closures, though did not specify how many employees had been affected.
The retailer has been active in the UK since 1987 and has had stores in the Republic of Ireland since 2006.
There are a total of 81 stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland, according to the Gap online store-finder.
The announcement comes following a strategic review aimed at “finding new, more cost-effective ways to maintain a presence and serve customers in Europe”.
In a statement, Gap said: “In the United Kingdom and Europe, we are going to maintain our Gap online business.
“The e-commerce business continues to grow and we want to meet our customers where they are shopping.
“We’re becoming a digital first business and we’re looking for a partner to help drive our online business.
“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.”
It comes following a spate of high street closures this year, including brands such as Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Burton – part of the former Arcadia retail empire.
More than 200 shops across the brands were forced to close and over 2,000 jobs were axed in February.
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They hire the 130 staff in order to automate the jobs of 1000s of staff. Then once the 130 have their jobs mostly done they can outsource maintenance of the system they created to some crowd in India and send the 130 home as well.
Eventually it will be just Mr. BOI laying in a hammock between two palm trees on the beach in the Bahamas with a cocktail in one hand and his phone in the other watching his bank balance steadily increase.
Fees will remain as high as ever if not higher, if you need to talk to a human to do something it will be nigh on impossible.
@Quiet Goer: they have moved to electronic forms with no need to be in branch to open an account and those hires will be to push on with the electronic stuff, has really sped along the old paper process
@Quiet Goer: withdrawal syndrome eh!
@Quiet Goer: Mr BOI and Hans Gruber must be going to the same beach……20% rates, I hear.
They close every outlet in the country yet. To contact them you need an email address. But if you owe them money they ring you on a private number.
They could do with a few people on their Mortgages phone line too. Just spent 24 mins on hold to get through to them. Funny enough, when you select the option for a new mortgage, you’re put through to someone straight away.
Outsourcing wasn’t as good as they thought it would be I guess! Given that they laid off or outsourced the vast majority of IT staff in the last decade.
@Melissa OHara: was it not just IT infrastructure and support that was outsourced. App development may still be in house.
Please please keep some humans… Online does not replace the need to talk and be heard and understood…. No Bot can do that with any degree of satisfaction….
@Jackie Healy:
Since when is a bank a psychiatrist?
The government is a major share holder in BOI and has not brought them to heal in any of their restructuring policies. Obviously big business owns the government and its cronies.
@Seán Dillon: Gov in the minority with 12%. On the sidelines waiting to cash out.
%14 oops
@Seán Dillon:
The bank is slowing healing from 2008 upset.
A few more years after full recovery, hopefully there will be a punter around to take that 14% off the Government’s hands at a decent price.
Off loading the larger chunks of equity held in the other two will take a fair while longer.
They have how many I T specialists in k b c . That they are taking over.
Surely that would be the best option for them
@Shay Flynn: not taking over kbc just buying the loan book arent they
Just pretend you’re buying something and you’ll get a human response pronto. I phoned BOI finance and got a name and number of a Regional Manager and my outstanding issue was resolved. Before that I did a tour of India or somewhere and the employees had no overview or authority to deal with a very small correction to my address . It was small but meant post was going elsewhere. They changed their system very shortly after I pointed out my comedy of errors.
Oh My God ! … I spoke to a real person ! What ? When did this happen ? That’s not supposed to happen ! I will report it immediately ! Some Bot is not functioning correctly .
I don’t think anyone in the comments section here gets it. Banking is changing, everything is going digital. If the legacy Banking system can’t convert they are done. BoI have failed in their attempts to modernize and compete with the new banking paradigm – I’m talking about Revolut etc. – now they need to take a less tentative conservative approach, otherwise they are bust. This is not just about profit margins, it’s about survival.
@mcmonkeys1: I was puzzled by the reference to cheques. Who uses cheques anymore?
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