Sears owner secures $ 250 million in new capital, but a further 96 stores will close
Following the closures, the company will operate just 182 stores, down from nearly 700 when it filed for bankruptcy in October last year.
"We will continue to evaluate our Sears and Kmart footprint in accordance with our overall retail and service strategy," Transformco said in a statement on Thursday.
For this latest round of closures, business sales are expected to begin on December 2. The company said on Thursday that all qualified shop workers will be offered the same number of weeks of severance pay that were offered to employees before the bankruptcy filing.
The company recently purchased Sears Hometown – a network of independently owned and operated, smaller stores that offer home products such as appliances, sports equipment and tools – which it hopes can help change wealth. If nothing else, Transformco said in its statement Thursday that it expects to "realize a significant return on our extensive portfolio of owned and leased properties."