It's been 125 years since former railroad employee and innovator Richard
Warren Sears launched a mail-order catalog that would propel the Sears retail
operation into the "World's Largest Store." Its later diversification into
financial services included the Dean Witter Reynolds investment firm and
Discover Card brands. But when the 1990s dealt the conglomerate a bad hand,
Sears changed first divesting many nonretail businesses and finally agreeing to
be acquired by Kmart . Seven years after the merger that created Sears Holdings
Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD ), the retailer is still changing. Sears' sales have been
shrinking every year since the Kmart merger in 2005. In the second quarter of
2011, Kmart sales were flat, and Sears' sales fell 1.2%. At $35.3 billion,
SHLD is now ranked 10th in annual retail sales not necessarily catastrophic in
a down economy, but far less than head-to-head competitors Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT )
at more than $307 billion and Target (NYSE: TGT ) at nearly $66 billion. Now
Sears may be banking on a management shift to help reverse its slide. On
Thursday, Sears Holdings announced the departure of its president of marketing,
Dave Friedman, wholl be replaced by Imran Jooma, e-commerce president. Sears is
also trying to capitalize on some of its most well known names. It has already
has licensed the Die Hard battery brand to Meijer Corp.s 194 stores, and it
hopes to make similar deals for the Kenmore appliance and Craftsman tool
brands.
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