Sears’ Eddie Lampert takes responsibility for ‘mistakes’: report

Edward Lampert stepped down as CEO of Sears on
Monday.
Reuters

• Sears chairman
  Eddie
  Lampert reportedly took responsibility for some of the
  retailer’s mistakes during a town hall meeting with 1,000 Sears
  employees on Tuesday, according to audio obtained
  by CNBC. 
• The department-store chain has been losing money and
  closing stores for years. Many employees and analysts blame
  Lampert for the retailer’s decline, accusing him of failing to
  invest in stores.
• In the past, Lampert has blamed the company’s
  decline on the
  media,
  shifts in consumer spending and the rise of
  e-commerce. 
• READ MORE:
  Inside Sears’ death spiral.

Former Sears
CEO Eddie Lampert, who stepped down on
Monday after five years in the job, reportedly took
responsibility for the retailer’s downfall while speaking to a
crowd of 1,000 employees during a town hall meeting on Tuesday.

“When Sears and Kmart merged in 2005, I envisioned a
company that would be different and relevant for the 21st
century. … These were two, iconic companies that had lost their
way,” Lampert said in the meeting at the company’s headquarters
in Illinois, according to audio obtained by CNBC.

He continued: “As we all know, we haven’t capitalized on
this opportunity the way I would have liked. Instead of growth
and investment, we have faced retrenchment and
restructuring.”

The company announced on
Monday morning that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection and would be closing an additional 142 stores before
the end of the year. Lampert will remain on as chairman of
the board.

Sears has been losing money and closing stores for years,
and many employees blame Lampert. In interviews with
Business Insider’s Hayley Peterson in 2016, executives
accused Lampert of neglecting Sears’ stores and leaving them to
crumble in his bid to turn Sears into a tech
company. 

Read more:

Inside Sears’ death spiral: How an iconic American brand has been
driven to the edge of bankruptcy

Between 2013 and this October, Sears’ store count dropped from
1,980 to 687, according to the company’s bankruptcy filing. The
department store stayed afloat thanks to Lampert bailing it out
with billions of dollars of loans through his hedge fund ESL
Investments.

“There were mistakes along the way, for which I take
responsibility,” he said on Tuesday, CNBC reported. “Those
failures have affected me in many ways far greater than any
successes I have had.”

“We need to show material progress over the next few months
to establish to our senior lenders that a reorganization of the
company is realistic and to avoid a shutdown and
liquidation.”

Read more about Sears’ downfall: