Sears president to step down Feb. 2

Embattled department store retailer Sears Holdings Corp. said Monday that its president and chief executive would step down Feb. 2 at the end of its fiscal year.

Aylwin B. Lewis will be succeeded by W. Bruce Johnson, an executive vice president of supply chain and operations who will fill the role on an interim basis. The company is controlled by chairman Edward S. Lampert, the hedge fund kingpin who has recently announced plans to reshape it.

The ailing 121-year-old retailer, which owns 3,800 Sears and Kmart stores in the U.S. and Canada, has been struggling with falling sales and increased competition from companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp.

Lewis, 52, became president and CEO of Kmart in 2004 and assumed the same role for the Hoffman Estates-based company a year later. He will also resign from Sears' board.

"We are entering a new phase in Sears' evolution as a multi-channel retailer, as reflected by the new operational structure we recently announced, and the board has determined that now is the right time to put in place new leadership to take the company forward," Lampert said in a statement.

Johnson will continue to be a member of the Office of the Chairman. He joined Kmart in 2003 as senior vice president of supply chain and operations and at the time of Sears' purchase of Kmart was appointed executive vice president of supply chain and operations for the combined company.

He was named to the Office of the Chairman in 2005 and took on store operations in 2006.

Lampert, who acquired Kmart in 2003 and Sears, Roebuck and Co. in 2005, announced plans last week to change its organizational structure in an effort to improve performance. The new structure will include five types of units: operating businesses, support businesses, brands, online and real estate.

The reorganization announcement came after Sears gave investors its latest round of bad news, announcing it would likely post fourth-quarter earnings well below Wall Street forecasts as eroding sales push its profit down as much as 57 percent.

The company said it expects to earn between $350 million and $470 million, or $2.59 to $3.48 per share, for the quarter ending Feb. 2 -- far less than the $4.43 per share sought by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Sears earned $820 million in the fourth quarter a year earlier.

Sears shares, which reached a high of $195.18 in April, closed Friday at $99.00.

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