Global retailer Gap Inc. is taking steps involving real estate and many other aspects of its business as struggles to turn around years of losses across its clothing brands.

The San Francisco-based company is shaking up its executive ranks, reevaluate its investments in marketing and technology and slowing its pace of new store openings as it tries to simplify its operational structure and recover from a series of mismanagement stumbles, interim CEO Bob Martin said.

Gap Inc. "has been complicated by its organizational structure and outdated processes," Martin told analysts on the company's earnings call Thursday. "We need to simplify how we work and embrace and drive change to enable a future where Gap Inc. is a healthier company at its core."

To "decrease management layers," company executives said the role of chief growth officer would be eliminated, and Sheila Peters, the chief people officer at Gap, would leave her position before the end of the year. The plan, while incurring some severance and other related expenses up front, is estimated to result in more than $300 million in annualized savings.

Martin said Athleta CEO Mary Beth Laughton would also be leaving her position, effective immediately, after the brand "suffered from product acceptance challenges" that resulted in disappointing sales through the crucial holiday shopping season last year.'

The additional cuts follow steps the retailer took last year that included pauses in some hiring and investments in an attempt to right itself after declining sales and restructuring blunders. Gap Inc. is also in the final stages of hiring a replacement after its decision to oust CEO Sonia Syngal last summer.

The retailer — which owns brands including its namesake Gap label, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Athleta — reported a net loss of $273 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2022, a steep decline from the $282 million in net income it reported in the third quarter last year.

"The engines of growth have not only stopped spinning, but they have also gone into reverse across every single one of the company's main divisions," GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders said of Gap's results and future growth. "Unfortunately, the outlook does not suggest any near-term improvement. And why should it? Gap is rather like a lazy student that has the capability but completely lacks the capacity or will to put in the work to deliver a better performance."

Gap expects to open between 30 to 35 stores between its Old Navy and Athleta labels, long considered its "growth brands," and would put up the final 55 Gap and Banana Republic outposts on the chopping block as part of a restructuring plan to close 350 locations by 2023.

Company-owned and franchised locations across all of its brands occupy about 31.8 million square feet of retail space, and it ended the most recent quarter with 3,399 store locations around the world, more than 2,835 of which are company owned. It closed 275 stores last year across its family of brands, the majority of which were located overseas.

As the global retailer navigates its internal challenges, it is also faced with mounting economic uncertainty that threatens to weigh down its recovery efforts. Retailers are carefully watching factors such as shaky consumer confidence and rising inflation, all of which Gap executives say make it even more necessary to tread cautiously in the year ahead.

"We have more to do than what we've announced today" Chief Financial Officer Katrina O’Connell said on the earnings call, citing continued uncertainty among both consumers and the macro economy. "We need to get through this large organizational change, but will then identify the next levers as we identify more in the cost structure to unlock."