The CEO of Kohl’s reported that the company does not plan to close additional stores this year after closing more than two dozen locations last year.
Kohl’s to close 27 stores in 15 states in 2025 as the department store The chain has sought to improve its financial situation amid declining sales, and the Wisconsin-based company hired Michael Bender as CEO in November.
Bender said on a call after Kohl’s reported quarterly results last week that the company has no plans to implement “any big plan to say we’re cutting or adding stores at this point.”
“The goal for us is really to optimize what we already have, and we’ll make sure that we continue to push the productivity of the store as far as possible in the future,” Bender said.
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Kohl’s has closed 27 stores in 15 states in 2025. (Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Kohl’s has about 1,150 locations, and Bender said more than 90 percent of those stores are profitable. The company’s annual reviews of the performance of its locations will therefore come from a “hygienic perspective to make sure these stores are positioned in the right place and providing what we need.”
“We will look at stores as we do on an annual basis, as I said. And to the extent that there are opportunities for us to move, those are opportunities for us, we can do that. But no major change in the expectations of the store base at this point,” Bender said.
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Teleprinter Security Last Change Change % KSS KOHL’S CORP. 12:57 p.m. +0.54 +4.49%
Kohl’s has struggled in recent years amid fierce competition in the retail sector from companies like the e-commerce giant. Amazon and discount competitors like Ross Stores.
Jill Timm, Kohl’s chief financial officer, said the company is focused on generate traffic both in-store and digital. She said the company saw strong digital traffic in the fourth quarter and is changing how it manages inventory in stores to give customers more reasons to shop in-store.
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Kohl’s is looking to drive more traffic to its stores and through digital channels. (Reuters/Brendan McDermid)
The company expects its full year sales will be flat, down 2%, compared with analysts’ estimates of a 0.7% decline to $14.85 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
In the most recent quarter, Kohl’s reported revenue of $4.97 billion, just below analyst estimates of $5.03 billion.
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Kohl’s stock was up more than 3% Thursday morning, although it was down 6.89% over the past five days. Shares have fallen more than 41% year to date, but are up more than 42% over the past year.
Reuters contributed to this report.