Sears sheared. Sears Holdings swings to loss as sales slump
By Andria Cheng, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Sears Holdings Corp. on Thursday reported a surprise loss for the second quarter, hurt by store-closing and pension costs and lower demand for home appliance and apparel.
The Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based retailer swung to a loss of $94 million, or 79 cents a share, compared to a profit of $65 million, or 50 cents a share, a year earlier.
Revenue in the quarter ended Aug. 1 fell 10% to $10.6 billion from $11.8 billion. Foreign currency translation impact hurt sales by $126 million alone, Sears said.
Excluding one-time items, the firm, majority owned by Chairman Edward Lampert's ESL Investments, said it would have lost 17 cents a share. Analysts, on average, estimated Sears would earn 42 cents a share, according to FactSet.
Sears shares fell 4.3% in pre-market trading.
The operator of about 3,900 Sears and Kmart stores said U.S. comparable-store sales slumped 8.6%, including a 13% decline at Sears and a 3.9% decrease at Kmart.
The Sears chain was hurt by categories hit by the declining housing market and by lower apparel sales. Kmart also was hurt by lower clothing sales, partly offset by rising home-electronics sales and the company assuming operations of its shoe business from a third party.
Interim Chief Executive and President Bruce Johnson has cut selling and administrative expenses by about $1 billion over the past four quarters as demand faltered.
The company last year reorganized its business into five units including brands and real estate and is exploring different ways of selling its portfolio of labels that include Lands' End apparel and Kenmore appliances. To bolster demand, the company also has started some Christmas sales in a bid to drive traffic to stores.
Gross margin, a measure of profitability, was flat at 26.5%.
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