The Illinois-based Sears Holdings Corp. said Tuesday that due to lower sales and expense increases it intends to close between 100 and 120 full-line Sears and Kmart stores.

The corporation said it hasn’t yet determined which stores will be closed.

"Given our performance and the difficult economic environment, especially for big-ticket items, we intend to implement a series of actions to reduce on-going expenses, adjust our asset base, and accelerate the transformation of our business model,” said Chief Executive Officer Lou D'Ambrosio. “These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers and members through integrated retail – at the store, online and in the home.”

The corporation reported that it operates 1,307 Kmart stores across 49 states, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 890 full-line Sears stores.

There are no full-line Sears stores in the Lake County area, with the closest being in Santa Rosa, according to the Sears Web site.

However, the corporation Web site showed there are “hometown stores” – not reported to be slated for closure – in Lakeport and Clearlake. Lakeport also is home to a Kmart.

The proposed closures are expected to generate $140 to $170 million of cash as the net inventory in these stores is sold, along with additional cash proceeds from the sale or sublease of the related store real estate, the corporation said.

Sears Holdings Corp. said it expects to reduce its 2012 peak domestic inventory by $300 million from the 2011 level of $10.2 billion as a result of cost decreases in apparel, tighter buys and a lower inventory position at the beginning of the fiscal year.

The Tuesday report attributed Kmart's sales decline to decreases in the consumer electronics and apparel categories and lower layaway sales, while Sears’ declines were primarily driven by the consumer electronics and home appliance categories, with apparel sales flat and Lands' End in Sears stores up by mid-single digits.

D'Ambrosio said the corporation plans to take several specific actions to improve its situation, including focusing on improving gross profit dollars through better inventory management and more targeted pricing and promotion; reducing fixed costs by $100 to $200 million; and carefully evaluating store performance going forward.

“While our past practice has been to keep marginally performing stores open while we worked to improve their performance, we no longer believe that to be the appropriate action in this environment,” the corporation said in its Tuesday statement. “We intend to accentuate our focus and resources to our better performing stores with the goal of converting their customer experience into a world-class integrated retail experience.”

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