Sears Canada Inc. announced Tuesday it is eliminating 712 jobs in its parts and repair services and 79 jobs at its Toronto head office.

The job losses at head office are to bring the organizational structure in line with the new, smaller Sears, which is selling off store leases and closing stores in major urban markets.

“The changes we are announcing today are being made to bring the structure of our organization in line with the size of our business,” said Sears Canada president and CEO Doug Campbell in a news release.

“Decisions that affect associates such as those which we announced today are not taken easily, and are made with great forethought and consideration.”

The layoffs come hard on the heels of an announcement that approximately 1,000 jobs will be lost as a result of the sale of leases at five locations, including the Eaton Centre, for $400-million.

The company announced in August that it cut 245 jobs at head office, in IT, finance and payroll.

Liquidation sales are underway at Sears at the Eaton Centre, Sherway Gardens in Etobicoke and Masonville Place in London, which are closing in February, and at Yorkdale Mall and Square One in Mississauga, which are closing in March, according to spokesman Vincent Power.

The company suffered a net loss of $48.8-million -- or 48 cents per share – in the third quarter, mainly due to severance and restructuring costs. Despite that, it announced an extraordinary dividend of $5 a share, to be paid in December.

On Monday, the New York Post reported that Sears Canada is being shopped around for sale by Edward Lampert, the CEO of Sears Holdings, which continues to own a 51 per cent stake in the firm

“It doesn’t appear that their plan is to really reinvest in Canada, at least in the short term,” said Maureen Atkinson, senior partner, J.C. Williams Group.

She said Lampert is also selling stores in the U.S.

“It doesn’t say that they really have a growth strategy. It looks like a strategy to maximize what they can for the shareholder,” said Atkinson.

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The job losses in the company’s repair services and parts business come after a review of the operations, according to Sears Canada.

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Sears technicians will continue to do repair work in major markets, although the teams will be streamlined, according to the company.

In mid-size markets, Sears will shift to Sears-authorized contractors as it does in small markets.

In the parts division, 16 existing stand-alone parts centres and a central processing centre in Belleville, Ont., will be consolidated into three major fulfillment centres located in Toronto, Montreal and Calgary.

Where a parts processing location is closing outside of those three cities, a parts counter will open in a nearby Sears location for customer pick up.

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