For the year, Sears earned $133 million, or $1.19 per share. This was off 43 percent from $235 million, or $1.99 per share, in the prior year.
Adjusted earnings fell to $2.07 per share from $3.19 per share.
Annual revenue declined 2 percent to $43.33 billion from $44.04 billion.
Full-year revenue at stores open at least a year fell 1.6 percent, with Kmart posting a 0.7 percent increase and Sears reporting a 3.6 percent decline.
For the 4th quarter, revenue at stores open at least a year rose 2.5 percent for Kmart. The chain reported strong sales of jewelry, clothing, toys, footwear and sporting goods but experienced weakness in its foods, consumables and pharmacy categories. Surprise - an increase in sales! Granted, not very much, but better than continual decreases in comps...
and a new CEO! The revolving door of poor leadership... is it going to continue with Lou D'Ambrosio? He's known as an information technology guy, having been at Avaya and IBM previously. Sure, Sears could improve with online shopping and mobile apps, but how it is going to fight a war on both price and innovation against Wal-Mart site to store or Amazon's powerful warehouse system, I don't know. Analysts again don't seem impressed with his lack of retail credentials and by Edward Lampert's (largest share-holder and Sears chairman) annual speech, which did not mention store remodelings, an investment that most analysts think is necessary given the company's aging stores. "Getting the customer in the door and servicing them is the basic problem for this large chain," Credit Suisse's Balter said, "a problem where the gap with its competitors seems to widen each year."
Also, Fremont Super Kmart is to become de-grocerized and become a mere Big Kmart, and cut store hours from 24 hours to 8am-10pm. Some job cuts are expected. Guess the Wal-mart supercenter proves superior! More on our comprehensive Super Kmart Center analysis, coming soon!
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