Sears Trying To Stop The Bleeding
NEW YORK (AP) — Sears may sell more locations, cut more jobs and put more of its famous brands on the block in an attempt to revive the faltering retail chain.
The company, which also owns Kmart, said Friday that it is cutting costs by at least $1 billion a year. The Hoffman Estates, Illinois, retailer, which has been losing money for years, also said comparable-store sales during the holiday shopping season weren’t as bad as industry analysts had believed they were.
Shares of Sears Holding Corp., which are already down 40 percent this year, soared 45 percent before the market opened Friday.
Sears is already in the process of closing 150 of its 1,500 stores, a measure it announced last month. It did not announce new store closures Friday, but said it would “actively manage our real estate portfolio to identify additional opportunities.”
It may also sell two of its brands — Kenmore appliances and DieHard car batteries — after striking a deal last month to sell its popular tool brand Craftsman.
Job cuts may also be on the way as it streamlines its organization structure, but the company did not release any details. Sears had about 178,000 employees in the U.S. last year.
From November to January, which includes the holiday shopping season, Sears expects sales to have fallen 10.3 percent at its established stores. That’s better than the drop of 13.1 percent that Wall Street had expected, according to FactSet.
