Sears Canada on Friday won court approval to begin liquidating all its remaining assets starting Oct. 19, putting the retail chain with 12,000 employees on a path to closure after 65 years in the country, Reuters reported. The approval was granted by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, which also extended creditor protection for Sears Canada to Jan. 22. The public liquidation sales are set to end on Jan. 21. The end comes after years of falling sales and sliding market share for Sears Canada, whose beginnings as a catalog company seemed to make it ideally suited to take advantage of consumers’ shift to online shopping. Weighed down by over C$1.1 billion ($879 million) in liabilities, almost matching its assets, and falling sales every quarter since it was spun off from Sears Holdings Corp in 2012, Sears Canada filed for creditor protection in June. It laid out a restructuring plan that included cutting 2,900 jobs and closing roughly a quarter of its stores. Last week, it won court approval to close 11 more stores and sell some businesses, and to extend creditor protection to Nov. 7. Read more.
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