Gap CEO On The Company's Growth Strategy Going Forward

Clothing major Gap Inc GPS announced on Tuesday that it plans to close 175 of its stores in North America over the next couple of years to streamline its store fleet. The company also announced that it will be laying off 250 workers from its corporate headquarters in fiscal year 2015.

These store closures will result in about $300 million annualized sales loss, according to company’s estimates. Gap also expects to take a one-time loss of $160 million due to this.

Gap CEO, Art Peck, was on CNBC following the announcement to discuss the company’s growth strategy moving forward.

The Strategy

"We have been very focused on building out the global footprint of the company and that’s brands in geographies across multiple channels," Peck began. "So, the speciality channel, the outlet channel and the online channel."

He explained, "That’s the strategy we are committed to, and we are pretty far down the path of having, really, a world-class global distribution system."

Related Link: A Preview Of Same-Store Sales At The Gap

Not As Good At Gaining Market Share

Peck continued, "Second piece, which we have been less good at, is gaining market share. And we need to gain market share in our mature businesses. That’s the platform that Jeff (Kirwan) has been building right now – it’s what Old Navy has been doing. It’s what Banana is stepping up to."

Big Growth Oppurtunity

"And then, obviously, gaining market share in other geographies by building more stores, growing our digital presence, growing our outlet presence.

" So, if you put our geographic expansion together with gaining market share, there’s a big growth opportunity there just inside the brands that we have right now," Peck concluded.