Losses in third quarter

The US retail group, Sears, has concluded the third quarter (to 27 September) with sales down by 2.4 per cent. Overall the trading group recorded sales of US $ 8.210 bn (€ 6.469 bn), which breaks down into US $ 7.141 bn (€ 5.627 bn) in the USA (- 4.1 per cent) and US $ 1.069 bn (€ 842 mio) in Canada, which corresponds to an 11.4 per cent rise. Like-for-like sales on the home market in the USA were down by 4.0 per cent. According to the company, not only the softer level of retail demand but also a pretax charge of US $ 141 mio (€ 111 mio) for the strategic realignment of the home improvement format, The Great Indoors, are among the factors responsible for losses to the tune of US $ 61 mio (€ 48 mio).