By Barry Ellsworth
TRENTON, Ont. (AA) – Sears Canada will close 59 stores and eliminate 2,900 jobs in an attempt to restructure its business, the company said Thursday after it filed for protection from creditors earlier in the day.
The remaining stores will be open during the restructuring as Sears tries to reinvent itself as a “leaner, more focused operation” that would allow it to better compete in the retail business,” CTV News reported Thursday.
“However, to achieve that goal and to right-size its business, the Sears Canada group anticipates that a number of stores will have to be closed, operating costs reduced, business lines exited, and head count reductions implemented,” Sears Canada said in court filing documents.
Lenders who have already extended credit to Sears agreed to interim financing of $CAN450 million to allow the company to continue to operate as it struggles to be more appealing to customers, the Financial Post reported. The loan was authorized by the court, as was 30 days of court protection from creditors.
Sears pledged to become more relevant in a cutthroat retail market.
“Reinvention requires constant change and we, as Sears, are making significant changes to our company,” Sears said in a statement on its website. “We are reinventing from the ground up. Literally. We are reinventing our customer experience to WOW each and every customer across all our touch points and that can’t happen without reinventing our culture.
“Welcome to the WOW movement.”
Under the plan, Sears Canada – which is a separate operation from Sears in the U.S. – will close 20 department stores, 15 Home stores, 65 small-market Hometown locations and 10 discount outlet stores.
Sears currently has 94 stores, 23 Home stores and 10 outlets in Canada. As of May 30, there were 17,000 employees but 10,500 were part-time.
There will be about 500 office positions terminated immediately, with the remaining job losses implemented as stores start to close, CTV reported.