Not so long ago, Sears (NYSE: SHLD) had become something of a value glamor stock. Journalists waxed about hedge fund manager-turned-Sears chairman Eddie Lampert's plan to turn the company into an investment vehicle -- comparisons to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) were ubiquitous.After yet another terrible quarter, Sears is down nearly 50% from its 52-week high, Herb Greenberg has even suggested that CEO Alwyn Lewis could be shoo-in for his Worst CEO of the Year Award.
Lampert's reputation as Sears chairman has gone from the penthouse to the outhouse pretty quickly, and he's not too happy. In fact, he's lashing out at critics. In a letter to employees on Friday, he wrote that:
While we were not pleased with these results, much of the commentary in the media and on Wall Street following the results ignores the strength of our company and the progress that we have made . . .
As Aylwin said yesterday, we cannot blame our results entirely on the retail and macro-economic environments, and we need to continue our quest to improve. At the same time, it is also the case that many retailers, including Home Depot, Lowe's, Macy's, Kohl's and JC Penney, have suffered from the economic environment of the past year and have had disappointing sales and earnings results. Much of the commentary following their results focused on the difficulties in the housing markets, the overall macro environment, and the highly promotional nature of the retail environment that has existed recently. An analyst for Fitch, the credit rating agency, reacting to JC Penney's new store openings was cited as praising JC Penney for keeping expenses under control. When other companies manage expenses carefully, it is often characterized as a sign of good management and prudence. In the case of Sears Holdings, meanwhile, expense controls are often cited as a root cause of poor performance.
Does he have a point? Perhaps. But it's still bad form for the chairman of a company that is underperforming by his own admission to criticize analyst coverage.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-23-2008 @ 10:59AM
carri said...
I worked with KMart on a fairly expensive project that they paid for. They didn't supervise it and I think they would have had me keep the money instead of doing the project to completion, but since I am honorable we took over the whole project and completed it beautully. There VP of Marketing is a real jerk , and I can see why they are lsoing money hand over fist. When you surround yourself with idiots you get what you deserve. They took a great company and trashed it.
12-03-2007 @ 10:11PM
tonya beth said...
Good one Eddie, NOW you talk about the retail business. Just think what the anaylsts would think if they saw how many long service employees you fired in the third quarter when you knew the numbers were going to bad. Anybody out there now who is watching SHLD just know that Eddie is cooking the books, he's not building a retail enterprise.
12-04-2007 @ 9:30AM
marc said...
as an employee of kmart for 25 years I have never seen it this bad and the cutbacks are incredible, and the salary budgets that are expected to run with. during a time that we should be focused on the customer we are worried about making changes in basic layouts and setting up programs that corporate wants. they are majoring in the minors and should be bitting the bullet and adding salaries so there are checkouts and associates on the sales floor to help customers so that they don't have to wait.
12-07-2007 @ 4:04PM
syd schuldiner said...
i am a retiree from shld. i worked for sears for 13 years. when mr lampert took over along with the k mart group i said he is out to take sears down. mr lampert and mr lewis are not an asset to company that was once one of the best companies in america. the stock was once $190.00 now look at it. there is something wrong some where.
12-07-2007 @ 4:02PM
syd s. said...
i am a retiree of shld. when mr. lampert and mr lewis took i said the company would be in trouble. they tried to institute the k mart brand of selling at sears. that was the start of the down fall of sears. sears was once one of the best companies in america.they are both good candidates for the worst ceos in america. i hope they wake up before it is to late.
1-14-2008 @ 11:42AM
cmungen said...
Blaming Eddy Lampert for the current sears problems is like blaming the last pack of cigaretts for your lung cancer!
Sears was getting very ill 20 to 30 years ago, even before the Telling, Brennan era.
Sears was so arragant that it was looking down it's nose at the stupid, tacky upstarts like walmart and home depot, all the while the consumer was telling sears that it wanted something different.
Sears was not capable of listening!
1-22-2008 @ 8:11PM
supertech said...
ive been with sears since the mid 90's. sears was a place we loved to shop and work at. people all over shopped at sears because of it promise to its customers. sears was built on a single promise, "Customer Satisfaction Garraunteed".
they still say they have this promise but were is it my mother purchased a very expensive t.v. and it failed not once but twice in less than 6 months, it took a month to get it fixed the second time several hours on the phone Sears "customer service". to get it resolved. wake up mr lampert your customers are talking to you. youve cut benifits wages and jobs in all departments trying to make yourself look better you even lay off techs when your state of service is more than 8 days out. what since does that make?? your lost and being led by a blind man. neither of you know what you are doing. unless you want sears holdings to fail you had better make changes quick, if you dont Lowes and the likes will put you out of buisness especially if people find out they can get a sears tech to fix their appliances purchased else where.. Wake UP EDDIE Your ship is sinking and your bucket has a whole in it.