Sears Lays Off 220 Employees at its Corporate Headquarters
Sears Holdings, parent company of Sears and Kmart, has laid off 220 employees primarily at the company's corporate headquarters in Hoffman Estates, Ill., effective immediately. The job cuts impacted various business units and roles across the retail organization, a spokesman told CNBC. The moves are part of the department store chain's ongoing restructuring plan, announced earlier this month, to streamline operations and get back to profitability.
"The company continues to achieve significant progress in our restructuring program, with actions taken in fiscal year 2017 to realize $1.25 billion in annualized cost savings," the spokesman said. Sears will offer severance and transition assistance to those employees who are eligible. It wasn't immediately clear how many people still work at Sears’ corporate headquarters, and the company declined to comment
Total Retail's Take: The hits keep coming for Sears. To start, the company had a disappointing holiday season, and last month, Sears announced it would be closing more than 100 stores between early March and April, including 64 Kmart stores and 39 Sears stores. Now it's laying off corporate employees with the goal of streamlining operations and getting back to profitability. That will be challenge considering Sears Holdings’ declining sales and debt payments that are due this year.
