TRURO, N.S. – Sears Canada will close 59 stores, including the Truro Mall location, the retailer announced Thursday following years of dwindling sales.
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The announcement came after the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted the department store chain temporary protection from creditors under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).
Sears Canada will close 20 full-line department stores, 15 Sears Home stores, 14 Sears Hometown locations and all 10 of its Sears Outlet stores. There will also be a reduction in the workforce of about 2,900 positions across its retail network and at corporate head office in Toronto.
The timing of the closures has not yet been announced.
There are 43 people employed at the Truro store.
“The decision to close this store is part of the actions we need to take at this time, but it has nothing to do with the quality of our staff there who have been a great team and have provided excellent service to Sears customers in the Truro area for several years, and we will miss them within the Sears family,” Vincent Power, vice-president of public affairs for Sears Canada, said in an email to the Truro Daily News.
Sears has been one of the Truro Mall’s anchor stores for several years, selling clothing, accessories, footwear, mattresses and appliances. Snow blowers and lawn tractors were seasonally available at the local store.
Sears Truro also includes a hair salon and engraved gift/key cutting service.
About 500 office positions throughout the country will be eliminated immediately, with the rest of the job losses coming as the stores begin to close. As of May 30, Sears Canada employed approximately 17,000 people, with 10,500 in part-time positions and the rest working full-time.
The move, which retail experts had been anticipating for some time, marks a culmination of struggles for a company with roots in Canada that stretch back generations.
Sears Canada has piled up losses and seen its stock nosedive, losing more than 80 per cent of its value in the last year, despite efforts to refashion itself at a time when more Canadians are shirking bricks-and-mortar in favour of online shopping. It has also gone through several leadership changes in recent years.
Headquartered in Toronto, Sears Canada operates 225 stores in all, including 95 department stores, 65 Sears Hometown stores, 23 Sears Home Stores and 32 Corbeil stores, a specialty major appliances chain. It said it hopes to exit court protection as soon as possible this year.
– With files from The Canadian Press
