HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill.-Lou D’Ambrosio, CEO of Sears Holdings, will leave his post on Feb. 2, the end of the company’s fiscal year. Edward Lampert, Sears Holdings’ chairman and chairman and CEO of ESL Investments, Sears Holdings’ largest shareholder, will become CEO at that time.
A Sears Holdings statement said D’Ambrosio had decided to step down due to “family health matters.” He will remain on the Sears board until the next annual stockholders meeting in May, and will be available to assist in the leadership transition.
Regarding his decision to become CEO, Lampert said he had agreed to assume the additional role “in order to continue the company’s recovery and sustain the momentum we are experiencing, as well as further the development of the management team under the distributed leadership model, which provides our business unit leaders with greater control, authority and autonomy.”
In a separate statement, Sears Holdings said it is projecting a net loss for this fiscal year to total between $721 million and $801 million, compared to a net loss of $3.1 billion for the last fiscal year. For the fourth quarter, Sears Holdings’ net loss is expected to be $280 million and $360 million, compared to the $2.4 billion net loss it posted in the fourth quarter of last year.
Sears Holdings also said same-store sales for Sears’ U.S. stores were up 0.5 percent for the nine-week period ending on Dec. 29. For Kmart, same-store sales in the same period fell 3.8 percent.