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In 1980, Sears, Roebuck and Co. announced the formation
of a corporate office and plans for major restructuring.
This resulted in renaming the retail business the Sears
Merchandise Group and the insurance business Allstate
Insurance Group in early 1981. When Sears acquired the
Dean Witter Reynolds Organization, Inc. and Coldwell
Banker & Company later that year, it formed the Dean
Witter Financial Services Group and the Coldwell Banker
Real Estate Group. The following year, Sears formed a
world trading company. It became Sears World Trade, whose
activities were reduced and transferred to the Sears
Merchandise Group in 1986.
The financial services strategy worked. The corporation
--plus the Discover Card introduced in 1985--grew into the
1990s, with revenues reaching $59 billion in 1992. That
year Sears announced it would again reshape the company to
give it greater strength and marketing focus and to give
its shareholders a better return on investment.
As part of this restructuring, the Sears Merchandise
Group, reorganized around its apparel, home and automotive
businesses, closed many of its under-performing retail
locations including some mall-based stores. Its
unprofitable general catalog operations also were closed
in 1993, leaving a smaller -- but successful --
direct-response business.
In early 1993, Sears also completed an initial public
offering (IPO) of 20 percent of its Dean Witter
organization, then called Dean Witter. In the second
largest stock dividend distribution in U.S. history, Sears
spunoff its remaining shares of Dean Witter to Sears
shareholders. Later in the year, Sears established another
financial milestone through the IPO of 20 percent of
Allstate's stock. At the time, it was the largest IPO in
U.S. history. The remaining Allstate shares were
distributed to shareholder in 1995. As the result of these
actions, shareholders of Sears then owned shares in three
separate and non-affiliated companies: Sears, Roebuck and
Co., Allstate and Dean Witter Discover & Co. (now
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.).
In addition, Sears sold the Coldwell Banker Residential
Services, the Sears Mortgage Banking Group and the Homart
Development Company. Total proceeds from these
transactions, about $4 billion, were used to reduce
overall corporate debt. With its diversified companies
divested, Sears, Roebuck and Co. had returned to its
retailing roots.
In 1997, Sears sold its majority interest in Sears,
Roebuck de Mexico.
A major expansion of Sears.com in 1999 heralded a new
era of enhancing the customer experience through Web-based
technology. With Sears.com, the company began serving as a
single national "clicks and bricks" resource for
researching, buying, delivering, installing, maintaining
and repairing the top brands of home-related products -
major appliances, home electronics, heating and cooling
systems, lawn and garden equipment, jewelry and watches,
recreation/games, power tools, repair parts and select
apparel items.
Sears Today
At the close of its 2000 fiscal year, Sears operated
863 mall-based retail stores, most with co-located Sears
Auto Centers, and an additional 1,200 retail locations
including hardware, outlet, tire and battery stores as
well as independently owned stores, primarily in smaller
and rural markets.
The company's services operations include product
installation and repair services; service contracts;
selected installed home improvements; and direct response.
Direct response includes direct response marketing, clubs
and services memberships; and merchandise through
specialty catalogs.
Sears, Roebuck and Co. also is the majority owner of
Sears Canada Inc., one of Canada's largest retailers.
Sears Canada operates 125 full-line stores, 176 specialty
stores, and 1,550 independently owned catalog agents and
hometown stores.
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