Sears Closing 50 Stores – Mostly Kmarts – Even Sooner After Loss

Shares of the company’s stock were valued at more than $15 on Tuesday, down from almost $45 a share last May.

A year ago alone, the company raised $3.1 billion by selling stores into joint ventures with mall owners and spinning off 266 properties into a real-estate investment trust.

The Hoffman Estates, Ill.,-based retailer has been struggling for years to regain traction with customers who no longer feel compelled to walk through the door, lured away by online retailers, more exciting apparel at brands such as Target and H&M and appliance deals at places like Lowe’s and Home Depot.

Sears, like Macy’s, blamed warmer weather and increased competition on the sales decline.

But poor holiday sales have Sears speeding up its timeline. While the company was already planning on closing some stores, it is expected to go into double time in the coming months.

Sears released a fourth quarter update on February 9th, in which it reiterated they remain committed to returning the company to profitability. This will include roughly 50 stores it had previously announced would be closed. The update noted that they would be making dramatic changes to their apparel business, and expense reductions for 2016 of $550 to $650 million. “We also intend to continue to evaluate and optimize our cost structure, including optimizing store-level marketing expenditures and overall staffing levels, and we will be taking action to reduce our fixed costs, and to improve our inventory management and gross margin realization”.

Sears will sell another $300 million in assets within the first 6 months of this year. This was another step backwards for the retailer as the company reported $125 million of adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2014.