Sears shrinks its corporate workforce from its headquarters in Hoffman Estates

Transform Holdco LLC, the parent company of Sears sent a letter to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity filed a notice on Aug. 29. after the retailer emerged from bankruptcy in February. In February, Eddie Lampert, former CEO of Sears hit a last-minute deal out of bankruptcy to buy the assets of Sears. The deal was made with a new entity, Transform Holdco LLC, also known as Transformco in order to keep open about 400 stores. According to the notice, Sears is going to lay off around 250 employees from its Hoffman Estates headquarters. Nonetheless, there are no plans to lock down the entire facility.

The company said it would implement permanent workforce reduction beginning Oct. 28, over a 14-day period. It also said that the employees affected will be on paid administrative leave before the employment termination date. Larry Costello, Sears spokesman, said that the affected employees were kept on paid leave last week. He also added that there are no additional action plans for October. The company said to the state in the letter that the employees who are terminated do not represent by any union.

Later, Sears continued to shrink its retail footprint by announcing last month to close five Kmart stores and 21 Sears from the end of October to mid-November. The two Sears stores in the western suburbs of Bloomingdale in the Chicago area and Merrillville, Indiana are scheduled to close in October. The closure of the Bloomingdale store will leave Sears with only five department stores in North Riverside, Chicago Ridge, West Dundee, Schaumburg, and Peoria, bearing the legacy of company name in Illinois. On Tuesday, the company confirmed that a Kmart will close by mid-December in southwest suburban Bridgeview. This will leave a Des Plaines store as the last Kmart in Illinois. The company said that a liquidation sale is expected to start in mid-September at the Bridgeview Kmart. Although the company’s employees are shrinking, the Sears headquarters will remain open at least for now in the northwest suburban Hoffman Estates.