Sears Seeking Restoration

Sears Holdings Inc. (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) has made a bid to acquire the specialty furnishings retailer Restoration Hardware Inc. (Corte Madera, Calif.) for about $269 million. Restoration Hardware had already agreed, earlier this month, to a $267 million buyout bid led by its management group and equity firm Catterton Partners Corp. (Greenwich, Conn.) that would take the company private.

Sears Holdings, which operates the Kmart and Sears Roebuck chains, disclosed last week that it owned a 13.7 percent stake in Restoration and had initially proposed a bid after being informed in late October that Restoration was weighing the management buyout.

Sears also announced that it is testing three new concept stores in the Cincinnati area called Solutions Centers. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the company is aiming the new approach at home renovation do-it-yourselfers, who may want a sneak peak at what the rooms will look like before they invest their money in their homes. Design centers in each pod offer computerized imaging to show customers how new cabinets, shelves, flooring and lighting will look. Another hub involves home theater and other electronic choices for home entertainment.

Norm Buchanan, Sears district vp for store initiatives, told the Enquirer that the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky area was chosen for the initiative because the demographics of the region closely match the rest of America. He said elements of the approach may one day be rolled out to the retailer's hundreds of other full-line stores in North America. Sears officials plan to track sales trends through all of 2008 before making any judgment.