Another Loss For Sears Holdings
Saturday, August 23, 2014 at 3:39PM August 21, 2014
Describing second quarter earnings as "unacceptable," Sears Holdings chairman and CEO Edward Lampert added that his company's transformation is continuing and online sales are growing.
The company reported second quarter net loss of $573 million, compared with a loss of $194 million in the same quarter last year. Revenues decreased $858 million to $8.0 billion for the quarter ended August 2, 2014.
"We are taking steps to address our performance on several levels," Lampert said. "This includes reducing costs as we evolve our business model, investing in our Shop Your Way and Integrated Retail customer initiatives, rationalizing our physical footprint and improving pricing and promotions."
The revenue decrease included the separation of the Lands' End business, which was completed in the first quarter of 2014 and accounted for $330 million of the decline. The revenue decrease also included the effect of having fewer Kmart and Sears full-line stores in operation, which accounted for $256 million of the decline, as well as a decrease of $140 million at Sears Canada.
Sears also experienced a revenue decline in its Home Services business during the quarter, as well as a decline in delivery revenues.
Sears full-line stores experienced comparable-store sales growth of 0.1% for the quarter as compared with a decline of 0.8% in the second quarter of last year, despite the continuing impact of consumer electronics industry trends.
Kmart comparable-stores sales were down 1.7% for the quarter as compared with a 2.1% decline last year.
Sales to Shop Your Way members in Sears full-line and Kmart stores increased to 73% of eligible sales, up from 71% during the second quarter last year. Online and multichannel sales grew 18% over the prior-year second quarter and 22% over the prior-year first half.
"We continue to evaluate our Sears Auto Center business, as well as our 51% interest in Sears Canada, including a potential sale of our interest of Sears Canada as a whole," the company said.
Source: Retailing Today
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