The Kmart store in Hartford will close this summer as part of a plan by Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears Holdings Corp. to close 68 Kmart and 10 Sears stores this summer.
The Hartford Kmart store, located at 1275 Bell Ave., is the only Wisconsin store on the store closings list that was released by the company today.
In February, Sears Holdings said it would accelerate the closing of unprofitable stores. Today’s announcement follows a comprehensive evaluation of the company’s store portfolio that took into account historical and recent store performance, and the timing of lease expirations, according to the press release.
All of the Sears stores and nearly all of the Kmart stores will close in late July; two Kmart stores will close in mid-September.
“The decision to close stores is a difficult but necessary step as we take aggressive actions to strengthen our company, fund our transformation and restore Sears Holdings to profitability,” Edward S. Lampert, chairman and chief executive officer of Sears Holdings, said in a written statement. “We’re focusing on our best members, our best categories and our best stores as we work to accelerate our transformation.”
The Hartford Kmart store manager could not comment on the pending closing. Calls to Sears Holdings were not immediately returned.
Kmart has additional locations in Oconomowoc, West Allis and Cudahy. Sears has stores at Brookfield Square and Southridge Mall in Greendale.
Kmart stores in Hales Corners and Greenfield closed in 2014.
Sears Holdings expects its next round of store closures to generate a meaningful level of cash from the liquidation of store inventory and from the sale or sublease of some of the related real estate.
Sears Holdings says it expects the store closings and the more than $1.2 billion in debt financing that the company announced it had raised earlier this month will provide capital to execute its transformation, meet its financial obligations and restore profitability to the company.
