Sears Loses $580 Million In Last Quarter Of 2015, Still Working On That ‘Transformation’ Thing

Earlier this week, we received an e-mail from a reader with a tip for our Sears and Kmart store closings list. We checked it out and learned that her local Sears store was actually staying open, which took her by surprise. “It sure looked like that part of the mall was being taken down,” she wrote, relieved, mirroring many shoppers’ reactions to the continuing existence of Sears and Kmart as a whole.

Rather than closing, that store in Burlington, MA happened to be under renovation so part of it could become a Primark, a fast-fashion chain based in Ireland that’s new to this country.

Sears reported their financial results for the last quarter of 2015, which includes the holiday season, and for the entire 2015 fiscal year today. The good news is that they lost less money in 2015 than 2014, but that brought the loss down to only $1.1 billion for the year.

In one of his periodic mini-manifestos, Sears Holdings chair Eddie Lampert explained to shareholders and to the public that the Internet and changes from technology have disrupted all businesses, not just retail, and that Sears Holdings is still building a “framework for profit”. The question is whether selling a bunch of real estate, a rewards points program, and appliance sales are enough of a framework to build that profit.

Sears Holdings Reports Fourth Quarter And Full Year 2015 Results [Sears Holdings]
Chairman’s Letter (February 25, 2016) [SHC Speaks]