Butler Kmart scheduled to close
The Kmart store in Butler's Pullman Square is one of 49 stores that Sears Holdings — which owns the company — plans to close later this year.
The Kmart closures, which were reported Tuesday by the publication Business Insider, come alongside other store closings for the company. In all, Sears Holdings is expected to close 72 Sears, Kmart and Sears Auto Centers, according to a list that the company released internally on Tuesday.
The latest closings, most of which are expected to occur in September, come in addition to the more than 180 store closings that Sears Holdings announced earlier this year. That initial announcement included six Kmart stores in Pennsylvania. The Butler Kmart is one of three Pennsylvania stores on the list as part of the additional closures reported Tuesday.
The closures also include Sears stores nationwide. Center Township's Sears store, which was located at the Clearview Mall, closed in July of last year as part of a nationwide shutdown of 50 stores.
The closures — which have pared down the company's stores from 2,073 to fewer than 1,500 over the last five years — come as Sears Holdings struggles to return to profitability amid lackluster sales, hundreds of millions of dollars in loan debt and instability among its executive ranks.
In its fourth quarter earnings report last year the company said it expected this year's round of closures to save at least $1 billion per year.
In 2016 the company reported a net loss of $607 million for the fourth quarter and said its revenue had shrunk from $7.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015 to $6.1 billion. The company said store shutdowns accounted for $598 million of that decline. The other $555 million was the result of a 10.3 percent decline in store sales, with both Sears and Kmart posting decreased fourth quarter sales.
Overall, the company said, it's revenue shrank from $25.1 billion in 2015 to 22.1 billion last year.
