— Furniture Today,
Product will be sold in 500-plus stores and online

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Sears executives say the retailer’s reentry into ready-to-assemble furniture has been one of the key growth elements for the company.

The retailer, now part of Sears Holdings, which also owns Kmart, dropped RTA — its last piece of the furniture business — about four years ago and called the business too complex and unprofitable.

But that was under a different management, company Chairman Edward Lampert said at a press conference after the company’s annual meeting here. He said that today, Sears is open to a variety of new ideas and opportunities.

“We’re not afraid to try things, and we’re not afraid to say it was wrong,” Lampert said, citing the discarded plan to convert some Kmart stores to a format called Sears Essentials. Instead, the company is pursuing a different off-mall format called Sears Grand.

The company said it will roll out an RTA program next month in some 541 stores and online at sears.com. The mattress business continues in about the same number of Sears stores.

“Furniture is an execution business,” Lampert said. “It is not an easy business, but we ought to be able to do it well.”

He left the door open that Sears might well return to some elements of the conventional furniture business.