SEARS AND KMART TO CLOSE 26 MORE STORES IN OCTOBER

More Sears and Kmart stores are set to go dark, as the brands’ new parent company, TransformCo, fights to keep the once-bankrupt business afloat.

The company announced on Tuesday that 26 additional Sears and Kmart stores will close in late October, ranging from locations in California to Texas to Virginia. Liquidation sales will begin around August 15th, the company said. The Sears Auto Centers at certain locations will start closing later this month.

“Over the past several months, we have worked hard to strengthen our vendor relationships, return our inventory levels to normal, and improve customer satisfaction and operations; however, we have faced a number of challenges returning our stores to sustainable levels of productivity, including differences with Sears Holdings over our purchase agreement and a generally weak retail environment. These challenges have unfortunately affected our performance and limited our strategic choices,” the company said in a statement.

Sears emerged from bankruptcy earlier this year when its CEO at the time, Eddie Lampert, secured a roughly $5 billion deal using his hedge fund ESL to buy the retailer’s assets out of court, keeping about 400 Sears and Kmart locations up and running. The new entity of assets was renamed. And Lampert stepped down from his CEO role but still serves as chairman at TransformCo.

The company added it “cannot rule out additional store closures in the near term.”