After failing to find a buyer, Sears Canada is focused on growing sales in popular categories such as Kenmore appliances to improve the business, said interim chief executive officer Ronald Boire on Wednesday.

“I think our transformation is very much going to be driven by creating even bigger, bolder and more value-oriented products and being loud and proud in the market about them,” said Boire, 53, meeting with the press for the first time since his appointment in October .

Boire is favoured to become CEO, making him the fourth CEO at the troubled Sears Canada in three years.

Boire comes to Canada from a senior executive position Sears Holdings Corp. in Illinois. He also held leadership positions at Brookstone Inc., Toys “R” Us, Best Buy and Sony Electronics Inc.

While Boire is firm in his intention to ensure Sears Canada prospers, the fact that the company remains largely owned by U.S. hedge fund investor Edward Lampert remains problematic, said Maureen Atkinson, a partner in global retail advisers J.C. Williams Group.

Last year, Sears Canada paid out $509 million in a special dividend to investors. In 2012, it paid out $102 million.

“As long as Eddie Lampert is involved, it’s not going to be about what is good for Sears Canada. All you have to do is look at his track record,” said Atkinson.

“I think that the Canadian company has never been able to use the resources that it has generated to improve operations, to do some of the other things that it needs to do. The money gets siphoned off.”

Lampert and his hedge fund, ESL Investments, control Sears Holdings in the U.S, and Lampert is CEO of the struggling retail enterprise.

“There is nothing in my background about taking companies apart. I didn’t come here with any intention other than to create a great company,” said Boire.

“We’re carefully outlining our plan for the company internally . . . We’re going to be doing a lot over the next six months around product branding, around investing in our infrastructure.”

He said the company will launch an entirely new website in the first quarter of 2015.

Boire pointed to Canada’s Best clothing and Craftsman tools as two other examples of brands that have customer appeal. He said Sears Canada will seek to win over Canadian families looking for quality that exceeds their expectations, at the right price.

“We’re not the place where you go if you’re going to go clubbing and I think that’s great. I think we’re the place you want to go if mom wants to dress the family, if she wants to do it in high-quality apparel and not pay super-premium dollars for it.”

He pointed to the recent successful Sears ad featuring comedian Mike Myers and his brother , a longtime Sears employee, as an example of the enthusiasm that still drives the company. The ad has more than one million views on YouTube.

Boire said there were buyers interested in purchasing Sears Canada , but not at the right price.

“There were a number of people that looked at it and ultimately, we felt — the ownership felt — that the company was worth more than we were willing to part for in a sale.”

He said that Lampert has a record of being a long-term investor and has been very committed to the Sears brand.

“What I want to do with the company is get it focused on growth and get it focused on really producing and delivering the great products and experiences that I know we can produce,” said Boire.

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Boire declined to discuss whether there might be more store lease buybacks, which saw Sears give up prime locations in major cities, other than to say that the company “will continue to optimize its business model.”

He said recent uneasiness among some vendors was a reaction to news out of the U.S. that was misunderstood and misinterpreted.

“We have a very strong balance sheet . . . we have no debt. Anybody who looks at our balance sheet rationally, our cash position rationally, is not going to be that nervous.”

He said outgoing CEO Doug Campbell did a good job of cutting costs, but it remains to be seen whether it will be necessary to further reduce staffing.

In Toronto, Boire is living close to Sears Canada headquarters, which are still located over what was once the Sears Eaton Centre store and is now a space being renovated for Nordstrom.

His home is in Warwick, N.Y.

“Ten years ago, the business was substantially larger and profitable,” said Mark Cohen, a professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Cohen was CEO of Sears Canada from 2001 to late 2004.

“Today, does it even have a heartbeat? There is nothing that Lampert has ever done that suggests he has any interest in running the business conventionally or successfully.”

Correction - November 13, 2014: This article was edited from a previous version that misquoted Mark Cohen.

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