Sears chief to leave, names interim CEO

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. retailer Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD.O) said
its chief executive Aylwin Lewis will leave the company, effective Feb
2, the latest in a shake-up of the firm that operates the Sears and
Kmart chain of stores.

W. Bruce Johnson, executive vice president, supply chain and
operations, was appointed interim chief executive, the company said in
a statement.

The move comes only days after Sears Holdings, which is controlled by
hedge fund manager Edward Lampert, said it would separate business
units and simplify the way they are managed in a bid to improve
results and reverse recent profit declines.

"The board has determined that now is the right time to put in place
new leadership to take the company forward," Lampert said on Monday in
a statement.

Sears Holdings was formed with the 2005 merger of Kmart and Sears, but
it has struggled to win customers from a host of competitors, and now
faces an economic slowdown that has hurt sales of home goods such as
appliances and tools.

Earlier this month, Sears warned that fourth-quarter profits could be
less than one-half those of year-ago levels, and said its holiday
sales fell as the crumbling U.S. housing market and competition hurt
business.

Sales at stores open at least a year have fallen at both Kmart and
Sears for the past seven quarters, and Sears' shares are now down
about 49 percent from a high of $195.18 reached in April 2007.

Sears said Johnson will oversee the five types of business units
created under its new decentralized structure, and Lampert will lead
the board's search for a permanent chief executive officer.

(Reporting by Nicole Maestri and Franklin Paul in New York and Sweta
Singh in Bangalore; Editing by Derek Caney and Dave Zimmerman)