Sears Holdings Corp, the owner of Kenmore appliances and the Kmart and Sears retail chains, will appoint executives to run each of its business lines after saying profit may decline for a third straight quarter.
Each unit's performance will have a designated leader and a group of executive advisers to oversee performance, Sears spokesman Chris Brathwaite said on Saturday in an e-mail. He didn't give details on what each division would do.
The company has Lands' End clothing stores and sells Craftsman tools and DieHard batteries at the Sears and Kmart chains.
The decision followed Sears's disclosure last week that fourth-quarter profit may drop by more than 50 percent after US holiday sales fell.
The biggest US department store company has reported declining sales in stores open at least a year every quarter since chairman Edward Lampert combined Kmart and Sears, Roebuck & Co in March 2005.
Sears, which declined 39 percent last year in NASDAQ trading, will give "greater control, authority and autonomy" to the individual businesses, Brathwaite said in the statement.
Since having put the retailer together, Lampert has centralized functions, giving executives responsibilities that stretched across the company.
The retailer, which blamed increased competition and "unfavorable economic conditions" for the drop in fourth-quarter profit, posted declines in the second and third quarters, with third-quarter net income declining 99 percent.
Corwin Yulinsky, executive vice president of customer strategy, and senior vice president Dev Mukherjee briefed executives on the plans on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal said on Saturday.
Lampert, 45, has tried to lure customers by extending products over the whole organization, adding Lands' End clothing to Sears stores and Craftsman tools at Kmart.
He boosted technology investments and introduced advertising campaigns this year for both chains while telling shareholders at the company's annual meeting in May that fixing retail was "a priority."
Some analysts say he has underinvested in the stores for too long.
"Once people decide they're not going to shop there anymore, it's hard to get them to come back," Jon Fisher, a portfolio manager with Fifth Third Asset Management, said on Jan. 14.
His firm manages US$22 billion in assets, including Sears stock.
The retailer has also lost a senior executive, chief customer officer John Walden, who is no longer with the company after a year at Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Sears, Brathwaite said.
Of the seven analysts that cover the 122-year-old Sears, only one has a "buy" recommendation, while four advocate selling the shares, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
The remainder advise holding the stock.
Lampert's ESL Investments Inc bought Kmart debt during the discount chain's bankruptcy and became its largest shareholder after the retailer's emergence from court protection in May 2003.
Lampert engineered Kmart's US$12.3 billion acquisition of Sears, Roebuck less than three years later to form Sears Holding Corp. His funds hold 48 percent of the company, Bloomberg data showed.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique