Sears Canada, which has more than 200 stores, filed for bankruptcy early Thursday.
The business was spunoff from Sears Holdings, the parent of Sears and Kmart, in 2012.
In a statement, Sears Canada said over the past 18 months, it embarked on a reinvention plan that has now begun to gain traction with customers. Sears Canada rebuilt its front and back-end technology platform, redefined its brand positioning, revamped its product assortment, and rebooted its customer experience and service standards. The new product assortment is reflected in two pillars, The Cut Sears, which offers designer labels at everyday value prices, and the Sears Label, which offers premium quality and enduring styles, also at everyday value prices. The customer experience was reinvented, both online, with a newly designed site built in-house by a new technology team, and in-store with a new format called Sears 2.0. Sears Canada also redefined its customer service standards to be best-in-class, and launched a new store in downtown Toronto to showcase its reinvention to an entirely new audience.
The company’s hard work to bring its vision to reality is reflected in reported growth in same store sales in its two most recently completed quarters. Sears Canada believes this indicates that the new brand positioning is starting to resonate with consumers. The brand reinvention work Sears Canada has begun requires a long-term effort, but the continued liquidity pressures facing the company as well as legacy components of its business are preventing it from making further progress and from restructuring its legacy assets and businesses outside of a CCAA proceeding. If granted, the Sears Canada Group will work to complete its restructuring in a timely fashion and hopes to exit CCAA protection as soon as possible in 2017, better positioned to capitalize on the opportunities that exist in the Canadian retail marketplace.
Photo courtesy Sears Canada
