Sears Cuts Jobs in Effort to Reduce Expenses

Sears Holdings cut 115 jobs at its headquarters and various corporate support locations as it seeks to reduce expenses in the face of years of losses.

Employees were notified Tuesday that 100 positions at the company’s headquarters, in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates, Ill., and 15 positions at other corporate support locations would be eliminated, effective immediately, the company said. The positions span various departments.

About 5,500 employees work at its headquarters.

“These decisions are never taken lightly, but they are a necessary part of our efforts to transform the company and return it to profitability,” Sears said in a statement.

Eligible employees will receive severance and outplacement service, the retailer said.

Sears Holdings, which owns Sears and Kmart, has lost money for 10 consecutive quarters. It is attempting to transform itself into a membership-focused “integrated” retailer reliant more on its Shop Your Way loyalty program than on physical stores. In the 39 weeks ending Nov. 1, Sears lost $1.5 billion.

The struggling department-store chain has been closing stores and selling or spinning off assets for years to pare down its footprint and shore up its balance sheet. It planned to close 235 stores, most of them Kmarts, in 2014.

Sears plans to report its earnings for the fourth quarter, important because it includes year-end-shopping-season sales, at the end of February.

Sears announced in December that it was losing a key executive, Imran Jooma, who headed up the company’s e-commerce efforts. Jooma, who Sears said was leaving to pursue other opportunities, remains at the retailer until Feb. 6.

This article appeared in print in the January 29th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.