Posted on 12/26/2019 6:48:23 AM PST by Red Badger
Sears created the DieHard brand way back in 1967.
NEW YORK — Sears has sold the DieHard car battery brand as the struggling retailer continues to shed assets to raise cash. The company, created by Sears in 1967, was acquired by Advance Auto Parts for $200 million, the companies said Monday.
Sears will still be able to sell DieHard goods in its stores. And it will still be able to create products for the brand as long as they are not auto-related, like the DieHard boots it currently sells.
Advance Auto Parts said it will sell DieHard auto batteries in its more than 4,800 stores and plans to expand it into batteries for other types of vehicles.
DieHard was one of the many brands launched by Sears during its more than 130 years in business. But as the company fell on hard times, it's been shedding some of its famous names to raise cash. In 2017, Sears sold its 90-year-old Craftsman tool brand to Stanley Black & Decker Inc.
Sears, which had 4,000 stores at its peak, sought bankruptcy protection last year and is now owned by Transform Holdco. By early next year, it will operate fewer than 200 stores.
Not many Sears stores left around here.
We lost ours as well, and so did Pensacola.................
Sears has been nothing but an asset liquidation company for over ten years now. They had a lot of assets to liquidate. At its peak, Sears had massive real estate holdings around the country (stores, warehouses, headquarters buildings, etc.) That was the first to go. Next were the trademarks (Craftsman, Kenmore, Diehard, etc.) Once they are all sold Sears will close the rest of the stores and sell the Sears name.
My first regular job with a paycheck was working at a neighborhood Sears store when I was in high school. I am sad to see them go.
Lampert did what the board demanded - sell assets in a singular minded effort of trying to close as few stores as they could. The board got what they demanded - cash, to keep dumping in their effort of keeping stores open. Lampert often paid more than the open market might have given them. Meanwhile some of those sales of assets that Lampert bought were made by Lampert getting shares of Sears, which over time have become worth less than what Lampert paid, making many of his bets on Sears to become losses.
I worked at Sears in the Hardware Dept. On the first cold day of winter the lines for a new car battery would be blocks long. One year I filled four pallets with dead trade in batteries. Die Hard was the #1 Battery Brand for many years.
Sears — — Diehard
Any Irony?
Sounds like the Department of State.
good first hand experience.
And to think that government bureaucracies are 10x worse.
Yeah. Bodes ill for draining the swamp.
Interesting, thanks for the info.
Growing up in rural Alaska it definitely was a big event. Other than food, pretty much everything else came out of a Sears, Wards or Penney's catalog, in that order.
The sale improves their pro-forma cash flow and give executives better bonuses, as well as making it easier to get loans.
Sears is being bled dry. And it is likely that banks will get left holding the bag.
This is always such a joke, and people fall for it hook line and sinker. The only thing really purchased was a name. Advanced Auto will take the same battery they sell now and simply slap a die hard label on it instead. But it will be the same battery they always sold.
I noticed a few years ago that the fickle and stupid American people (they voted in the Pelosi House---I win.) used to buy products from itinerant salesmen on the prairies,or pushcarts in towns, had things sent by mail or wagon delivery,then had stores in towns and cities to go to, had Sears catalog to ship them things, then shopping centers, then malls ,then retail stores ("brick and mortar") died and now they want things sent by mail order again. Like the 1800s. And due to porch pirates we will have to travel to pickup points again.
I used to buy only Die Hard batteries for 30 years. If you had an issue they took care of you and I had few issues.
Been buying Interstate batteries for the past 5 or so years now.
My brother found a broken knife in the woods when we were teenagers 30 years ago. It was a Die Hard. As a joke, he took it in to Sears, and they gave him a new one. No receipt necessary.
My wife used to have an old Nissan small truck with a campertop on the back. The lift supports won’t hold it open, so I bought replacements with lifetime warranty at Auto Zone.
I must have replaced them a dozen times over the next 5 years. Auto Zone went to a LIMITED lifetime warranty (which means once), but had to honor mine since it was before they changed the terms.
I didn’t realize they were still open online. I remember getting parts to fix my dryer through Sears in the past, but those days are gone.
I worked for Sears in the online business unit (sears.com, Kmart.com, etc). At the time they had a very well received mobile app. I had a suggestion that they copy the app, and rebrand it with a new hip name since none of the younger crowd had any history with or interest in Sears. I suggested keeping the existing app and simply creating a second one.
Nope
They looked at me like I was nuts, asking if I understood the value of the Sears brand. Lol
To anyone under 40, there is no value to the Sears brand. Zero
So glad to be gone from that place.
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