JC Penny chief Marvin Ellison eyeing Sears’ appliance sales

JC Penny CEO Marvin Ellison is upfront about the retailer targeting fellow struggling department store chain Sears' appliance sales.

Penney, which resumed selling large home appliances two years ago after keeping from the category for decades, saw increased appliance sales of 30 per cent in the November and December holiday period, a significant contributor to Penney's better-than-expected 3.4 per cent holiday season sales growth, Ellison told Fortune in an interview yesterday.

Additionally, Penny will keen watch Sears, a retailer that has closed hundreds of stores in recent years, and even recognised doubts about its longer-term viability in its annual report last year.

Sears Holdings, which also operates Kmart, said yesterday that it was closing another 64 Kmart stores and 39 Sears stores, in addition to many previous rounds of store shutterings in recent years.

Besides appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines, Penny last year added showrooms for and mattresses at some 500 stores in its bid to become less reliant on apparel, bolster its home goods category, and frankly, to capitalise on the years-long sales decline at Sears, once the leading seller of appliances in the US.

''We're going after Sears and we're going after market share that we think is going to be available not only now but as they continue to contract,'' Ellison said.

Meanwhile, over a 100 Sears and Kmart stores, including five Kmarts and six Sears stores in California, will be shuttered in March and early April, Sears Holdings Corp announced yesterday.

The company will continue to close down unprofitable stores as it attempts to ''right-size'' the number and size of its physical stores to customers' needs, it said in a statement.

Employees at the 64 Kmart and 39 Sears stores that close will get severance benefits. They will also be able apply for open positions at other Kmart and Sears stores. The company, however, did not guarantee jobs for associates in the statement.

Sears Holdings spokesman Larry Costello did not say how many jobs would be cut, but noted that the majority are part-time positions. Liquidation sales are set to start on 12 January.