Sears Roebuck reports record earnings
Mid market retailer expects solid 2003 perfomance
January 18 2003
US retailer Sears, Roebuck has reported 2002 net income of $1.4bn, and expects its retail offer to grow in the struggling US retail market over the next year.
Chairman and chief executive Alan J. Lacy said: “‘2002 was a year of tremendous change for Sears. We made significant progress in repositioning and restructuring our core retail business, full-line stores, resulting in improved earnings.”
In the fourth quarter, a strong retail performance offset a decline in the credit and financial products sector. The Sears Card is one of the world biggest retail consumer credit operations, and problems in the US economy have led to a slight increase in repayment problems experienced by consumers.
Lacy said: “Despite a challenging retail environment and soft sales, we made strong progress in improving our core retail operations. The acquisition of Lands’ End, continued improvement in merchandise assortments, inventory management and vendor sourcing, and an improvement in the cost structure of the full-line stores all contributed to increased profitability.”
A decline in full line store sales was offset by increased revenue from the Lands’ End clothing business, as well as the addition of seven new The Great Indoors stores. Big-ticket categories such as home appliances, home electronics and lawn and garden saw sales improve.
Sears expects to grow its retail business by a percentage in the mid-teens during 2003, while credit and financial products is expected to decline at a low-to mid-single-digit rate.
