Sears to Buy 28 Former Montgomery Ward Sites

Sears, Roebuck & Co. plans to buy 18 former Montgomery Ward department stores and 10 auto centers from the bankrupt retailer. The stores to be purchased include one in Huntington Beach and three in Northern California. Sears plans to convert four of the Ward’s locations to Great Indoors stores, Sears’ remodeling and decorating retail concept. Fourteen of the former Ward’s locations will be converted to Sears stores, with Sears Auto Centers attached to three of those stores. The 10 free-standing former Ward’s Automotive Centers will be converted to Sears Auto Centers. Sears also announced an agreement that could see it serve about 2.4 million former Montgomery Ward service contract customers. In addition, Sears will acquire certain assets of Montgomery Ward’s national repair business, A&E; Signature Service. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sears expects to complete the purchase of the Ward’s stores by mid-April and plans to remodel and reopen them by spring 2002. Shares of Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears fell 6 cents to close at $34.71 on the New York Stock Exchange.