CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sears Holdings Corp SHLD.O is closing eight of its namesake department stores and 35 Kmart locations to cut costs and square footage in an effort to return to profitability, Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert said on Friday.

A Sears department store is pictured in La Jolla, California, U.S., March 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

The store closings are in addition to 150 the company announced in January. Once the largest U.S. retailer, Sears has struggled with years of losses and declining sales as shoppers have shifted from the mall to the web. The company said in February it would cut costs this year by at least $1 billion.

Shares of Sears fell as much as 4.8 percent in afternoon trading.

"This is part of a strategy both to address losses from unprofitable stores and to reduce the square footage of other stores because many of them are simply too big for our current needs," Lampert wrote in a blog post. (bit.ly/2u03gDc)

A Sears spokesman declined to say how many jobs would be lost from these store closures. He said employees who are eligible would receive severance and be able to apply for open positions at area Sears or Kmart stores.

Lampert added that Sears expects to open more smaller-format stores while shrinking its large, less-competitive ones. He said Sears was on track to meet its cost-cutting targets.

“We reached the point in the past 12 months where some of our vendors have reduced their support, thereby placing additional pressure on our business,” Lampert said.

Sears suppliers told Reuters in March they were doubling down on defensive measures, such as reducing shipments and seeking better payment terms, to protect against the risk of nonpayment.

Lampert, in a version of the blog post updated on Friday afternoon, added that Sears had amended its second lien credit facility to provide up to $500 million in additional borrowing capacity and had sold over $200 million in real estate, helping Sears pay down part of its real estate loan.

Sears said in a separate statement that Lampert’s hedge fund, ESL Investments Inc, controls one of the entities that has loaned money under the facility, and that ESL is considering participating in the facility as a lender.

As well as owning over 48 percent of Sears, Lampert and ESL - through its affiliates - have provided debt funding to the company several times since he was appointed CEO in 2013.</s>NEW YORK (AP) — Struggling department store chain Sears says it’s closing even more stores as it tries to turn around its business.

Sears Holdings Corp. CEO Eddie Lampert said in a blog post Friday that the company would close another eight Sears and 35 Kmart stores that are unprofitable by early October. Hundreds of store closings have already been announced this year.

Sears had said in March that there was “substantial doubt” it could continue after years of bleeding money, though it has insisted that its actions to regroup should help reduce that risk. With more people shopping online, mall foot traffic has dropped.

Lampert noted Friday that Sears has opened smaller stores to attract customers and is on track to cut $1.25 billion in yearly costs.

There were 624 Kmart stores and 651 Sears stores as of the end of April.

WHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON:</s>43 More Sears And Kmart Stores Are Closing: Is Yours On The List?

Sears Holdings, parent company of Sears and Kmart, announced today that it plans to close down another 43 stores. As with previous rounds of closings, Kmart stores dominate the list, with 35 stores in 21 states set to turn their blue lights out forever.

The announcement came with a mini-manifesto from Sears Holdings Chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert, who framed the store closings as furthering the company’s “transformation” into a profitable retailer. We see it more as an entity pulling itself even farther into a death spiral.

Just last week, a list leaked of 20 Sears Department stores slated to close, which do not overlap with the eight Sears stores listed below.

“This is part of a strategy both to address losses from unprofitable stores and to reduce the square footage of other stores because many of them are simply too big for our current needs,” writes Lampert.

That makes sense, since Sears stores can be massive, and landlords or Seritage Growth Properties, an affiliated real estate investment trust that has purchased billions of dollars’ worth of Sears stores, can collect at least four times more rent from a Whole Foods or a Primark than from department stores.

Is your local Kmart or Sears store the next to close? Here’s the full list for your perusal, sorted by state.</s>A Sears store seen in 2014 in Coral Gables, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images Sears Holdings is closing 43 more stores in the US, in addition to the 265 closings that had already been announced this year.

The company announced the latest closures on Friday.

The new list of closures includes 35 Kmart stores and eight Sears stores.

The closings will bring Sears' store count to less than 1,140, down from 2,073 five years ago.

"This is part of a strategy both to address losses from unprofitable stores and to reduce the square footage of other stores because many of them are simply too big for our current needs," Sears CEO Eddie Lampert said in a blog post on the closures.

Sears announced its first round of store closures in January. Three more rounds have been announced since then.

If you work at Sears and have a story to tell, email this reporter at hpeterson@businessinsider.com</s>In March, Sears officials said there was “substantial doubt” the store chain would have a future if it continued hemorrhaging money, the Associate Press reports. The substantial growth of online shopping in recent years has been blamed for the closing of not just Sears and Kmart stores, but the downsizing and shuttering of a plethora of other once profitable retail chains, such as JCPenney and HH Gregg.

A reduction in foot traffic in shopping malls and shopping plazas where Sears and Kmart stores are located has prompted the retailer to open smaller stores to try to lure customers inside. The move has allowed the company to cut $1.25 billion in annual costs, according to a report by the Chicago Tribune.

Sears, a once highly successful chain, has long been known as the brand that created the first direct mail order catalog and the first modern department store. Sears announced that it will shutter 8 more of its namesake Sears department stores and 35 Kmart locations https://t.co/FFWwE2m8vL pic.twitter.com/tEVhMBJJec Generations of American children eagerly awaited the arrival of the Sears Christmas Wish Book catalog and earmarked pages of toys they wanted Santa Claus to bring them. The latest wave of Sears and Kmart store closings will leave the company with less than 1,140 open locations, the Business Insider reports. Five years ago, there were 2,073 Sears and Kmart stores. Going-out-of-business sales will begin as early as Thursday at 35 Kmart and 8 Sears that are closing. See the list: https://t.co/XQga7ISEYO</s>FITCHBURG (CBS) – Attention Kmart shoppers: Get ready to say goodbye to two Kmart stores in Massachusetts.

Sears Holdings announced Friday that it will be closing eight Sears and 35 Kmart stores across the United States by early October. That includes Kmart locations in Fitchburg and Springfield.

CEO Eddie Lampert says the stores set to close are unprofitable. He says some stores will also see a reduction in square footage “because many of them are simply too big for our current needs.”

Earlier this year, it was reported that 150 Sears and Kmart stores would be closing. That announcement affected Kmart stores in Fairhaven and South Attleboro, as well as Sears in Swansea.

In March, Sears admitted there is “substantial doubt” that it will be able to keep its doors open.</s>Sears Holdings — the parent company of Sears and Kmart — announced on Friday that it will shutter eight of its namesake Sears department stores and 35 Kmart locations, adding to the list of 236 stores Sears has announced plans to shut down in 2017.

With the newest round of closings, Sears Holdings is poised to close down about 20% of its locations.

The company said in a blog post that the store closures are part of an ongoing effort to “focus on our best stores and return to profitability.”

“This is part of a strategy both to address losses from unprofitable stores and to reduce the square footage of other stores because many of them are simply too big for our current needs,” Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert said in the post.

Sears said it is focusing on bolstering digital sales and is also testing out small, specialized “concept stores” that offer Sear’s best-selling items.

Streamlining its retail footprint is part of an effort to restore vendors’ confidence in Sears, the company said. Some vendors have “reduced” their support for the company over the past year — “thereby placing additional pressure on our business,” according to the blog post.

Once America’s largest retailer, the company has struggled to stay afloat as customers turn away from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to shop online.

Sears warned in March that the company has “substantial doubt” about its ability to remain in business. Its losses have surpassed $10 billion since 2010, the last time it turned a profit. Sears Canada, which Sears Holdings spun off in 2012, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Sears closed 240 stores last year and 53 in 2015.

It’s hardly the only retailer to be experiencing such woes.

Other department stores like Macy’s and JCPenney have announced layoffs and store closures over the past few months.

There have been about 5,300 store closing announcements so far this year, according to retail think tank Fung Global Retail & Technology.

You can see the full list of the stores announced today here. (pdf)</s>Two more Kmart stores in MIchigan are set to close, another step in the long-term shrinkage of the one-time retail giant.

Stores in Monroe and Escanaba are on the list of pending closings, according to a statement released Friday by Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears Holdings Inc.

The list includes eight Sears and 35 Kmart stores nationwide. The stores are set the close by early October, Sears Holdings said.

The closings add to earlier closings totaling 265 stores already announced this year, including the Sears store at Macomb Mall in Roseville and the original Kmart store in Garden City.

Sears and Kmart have struggled with declining sales resulting from heavy competition from discounters like Walmart Stores Inc., the shift toward online sales dominated by Amazon.com Inc., and a lack of investment in its own stores. The company has been relying on sales of its real estate to help keep it afloat.

Sears Chairman Edward Lampert said the company is on track to get to its goal of $1.125 billion in annual cost savings as part of a cost-cutting program.

This story has been corrected to reflect that the stores closing are Kmart stores, not Sears stores.</s>Here we go again.

Sears Holdings ( shld ) on Friday announced a new round of store closings , this one involving 43 locations. The company framed the move as a strategic decision, one that will aid in its hoped-for return to profitability.

The retailer, which operates the Sears department stores and Kmart discount chain, has already announced 265 closings this fiscal year. The latest paring of the fleet will leave the company with 1,140 stores, barely more than half the number of stores it operated in 2012. In this latest round of shutterings, 35 Kmart stores and eight Sears stores will close. (See list below.)

That's likely not the last of it, either. In a blog post, company CEO Eddie Lampert said more closings are coming.

In May, Sears reported disastrous first quarter results , with comparable sales down 12.4% at Sears, and 11.2% at Kmart in the first quarter. The disappointing sales numbers weren't new -- Sears lost about $10 billion in the last six years -- but there are signs the retailer is reaching a crisis point. Earlier this year, the company implemented a $1.25 billion cost-cutting plan, and acknowledged fears it could very well go bankrupt.

"We have fought hard for many years to return unprofitable stores to a competitive position and to preserve jobs," Lampert wrote in the blog post. "As a result, we had to absorb corresponding losses in the process. So, it is obvious that we don't make decisions to close stores lightly."

Lampert, a hedge fund manager who engineered the merger of Kmart and Sears in 2004, has long touted his work to reposition the company in response to large-scale shifts in the retail industry. (In his estimation, this means less physical space, as customers now expect more focused, edited assortments, and a focus on membership-based shopping.)

In recent years, Sears' has moved to protect its cash pile by spinning off its best properties into a real estate investment trust, as well as subleasing and leasing store space. The rationale is that smaller, focused stores are more relevant to today's shoppers. Sears recently opened a small store in Texas focused on mattresses and appliances, part of a new format the company is testing.

It's questionable that an additional 43 stores and experimenting with new store formats will be enough to move the needle for a retailer with 1,000 locations. Indeed, Sears has closed hundreds of weak stores in the last few years, yet comparable sales - a metric that strips out the impact of newly closed or open stores- have continued to relentlessly fall.

Here are the stores involved in the latest round of closures:</s>NEW YORK — Struggling department store chain Sears says it’s closing even more stores as it tries to turn around its business.

Sears Holdings CEO Eddie Lampert said in a blog post Friday that the company would close an additional eight Sears and 35 Kmart stores that are unprofitable by early October. Hundreds of store closings have already been announced this year.

Sears had said in March that there was “substantial doubt” it could continue after years of bleeding money, though it has insisted that its actions to turn around its business should help reduce that risk. With more people shopping online, mall foot traffic has dropped.

Lampert noted Friday that Sears has opened smaller stores to attract customers and is on track to cut $1.25 billion in yearly costs.
Sears, Roebuck & Co. announces it will be closing eight more of its namesake department stores, as well as thirty five Kmart locations in addition to the hundred and fifty stores that they had announced in January would be shuttered.