Company Overview
Highlights
Acquired Sears-Roebuck in 2004.
Owns 1,416 Kmart stores across 49 states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Kmart is one of the major retailers in the U.S. It traces its roots back to a Detroit five-and-dime, and today has 1,380 stores. It owns private labels such as as Martha Stewart, Joe Boxer, Jaclyn Smith, and Route 66. One thousand of its stores offer pharmacy services. The company has set up international facilities in Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Bad business decisions and increasing competition from the likes of Wal-Mart and Target forced Kmart to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2002. To add to its hardships, accounting errors were discovered later that year that required the company to restate its earnings for several years. The company laid off more than 50,000 of its workforce and closed more than 300 stores in response. It emerged from bankruptcy in 2003, and acquired Sears in 2004.
The merger didn’t exactly spark an upswing in the stores’ sales. After announcing plans to restructure its retail operations in 2008, Sears Holdings announced Aylwin Lewis’ departure. Former-Executive Vice President W. Bruce Johnson stepped in to the Interim CEO and President role to replace Lewis, who served as CEO of Sears Holdings for three years after serving as the lead executive for Kmart.
As part of its restructuring strategy, Sears Holdings converted approximately 400 Kmart stores to Sears outlets, and added to the stores’ offerings Sears brands such as Craftsman, Diehard, and Kenmore. The addition of Sears’ appliances is intended to help set Kmart apart from competitors Wal-mart and Target. The company also opened 10 of its 20 Sears Auto Centers operating in Kmart in 2007.