Stronger Kmart, weaker Sears skews earnings pic.(Business)

Home Textiles Today, December, 2005 by Hogsett, Don

Hoffman Estates. Ill. -- Sears Holdings Corp., the newly formed combination of the former Kmart and Sears, Roebuck, put up a third quarter profit of $58 million, down almost 90 percent from last year, when profits were swollen by $807 million brought in from the sale of assets. Sales at the giant retailer--still something of a work in progress as the newly acquired Sears business is being thought out and the Kmart operation is still being fine-tuned--jumped 175.7 percent, to $12.2 billion from $4.4 billion, as Kmart layered on $8 billion in Sears' sales since the March acquisition.

While overall sales almost tripled in the wake of the merger, same-store sales remained problematic and declined at both Kmart and Sears. Same-store sales weakened...

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