Kingsgate Centre fashion store to shut
FASHION chain Gap is closing its Huddersfield store with the loss of up to 28 staff.
The trendy clothes retailer will close its store at the Kingsgate shopping centre on Saturday, March 27.
A spokeswoman for the group said the store was not generating enough profits.
She said 28 staff would be affected by the closure.
"It is too early to see anything concrete, but it is possible there will be some employment opportunities in nearby stores."
Gap has a store at Birstall Retail Park as well as outlets in Leeds and Meadowhall in Sheffield.
The unit in Kingsgate will be taken by music retailer HMV, which has already announced plans to come to Huddersfield.
HMV expects to recruit 12 staff for the store, including full and part-time sales assistants, security officers and people to work in the stockroom and cash office.
HMV aims to open the Kingsgate store in the first week of June.
Gap, which has major stores on New York's Fifth Avenue and London's Oxford Street, signed up for Kingsgate two years ago.
But a major refit of its shop unit - to create 9,000sq ft of sales space - was not completed in time for the Kingsgate centre's grand opening on March 1, 2002.
The acquisition of Gap was regarded as a major coup for Huddersfield - and a draw for other big name retailers to take space in Kingsgate.
Gap is based in San Francisco, but has its UK headquarters in Rugby, Warwickshire.
