Sears, which emerged from bankruptcy earlier this year, announced plans to close five Kmart and 21 Sears stores.
The new parent company of Sears and Kmart, called Transform Co., said in a statement, “Over the past several months, we have worked hard to strengthen our vendor relationships, return our inventory levels to normal, and improve customer satisfaction and operations; however, we have faced a number of challenges returning our stores to sustainable levels of productivity, including differences with Sears Holdings over our purchase agreement and a generally weak retail environment. These challenges have unfortunately affected our performance and limited our strategic choices.”
The company added in its statement, “Following these steps, we will continue to evaluate our network of Sears and Kmart stores and cannot rule out additional store closures in the near term. Our goal remains to return the company to profitability and preserve as many jobs as possible in the communities we serve. ”
Liquidation sales will begin in mid-August and the stores will close in late October.
Sears Holding emerged from bankruptcy earlier this year when its former CEO Eddie Lampert purchased about 400 Sears and Kmart stores in a $5 billion court-approved deal. That company was renamed TransformCo. and Lampert is no longer CEO but remains chairman.
The stores’ closing can be found here.
