Sears Roebuck Co

* Sears, Roebuck & Co. said it named Jeffrey Boyer chief financial officer, replacing Julian Day, who was promoted in September to help Chief Executive Arthur Martinez turn the company around. Boyer, 41, has been the retailer's controller since 1998. Sears hasn't yet named a new controller.

Sears, Roebuck & Co. is changing its image again in the latest effort to rev up sluggish sales, ditching its focus on discount prices in a new advertising campaign emphasizing its wide variety of goods. The multimillion-dollar message: Shoppers can find most anything under one roof at Sears. The switch in pitches comes at an important time for the nation's No. 4 retailer, hamstrung by a tightened economy as it tries to keep from losing more ground to discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Sears Roebuck & Co. in July will begin gutting the first three floors of its former catalog distribution center in Boyle Heights, clearing the way for the economically depressed neighborhood's first major retail development in decades, company officials said Wednesday. The 250,000-square-foot store, scheduled to open August 2002, will replace an aging store in Boyle Heights that last received a major face lift during the 1970s.

Fashion-Conscious: Sears, Roebuck & Co. said it will introduce a new advertising campaign in August as part of a marketing plan to boost clothing sales. The campaign is being jointly created by Ogilvy & Mather and Young & Rubicam Inc., both based in New York, and will be launched in early fall, Sears said. The ads will tell consumers about Sears' updated fashions that it's selling at lower prices.

Investment Groups Reportedly Want Coldwell Banker: A management team and two investment groups are reportedly negotiating to buy Coldwell Banker Residential Services, the home sales operation that retailing giant Sears, Roebuck & Co. put up for sale last year. Boston-based Bain Capital and Acadia Partners--a Ft. Worth, Tex., investment group that includes billionaire Robert Bass--would provide financial backing for the acquisition, according to a report in Crain's Chicago Business.

Sears, Roebuck & Co., the nation's No. 1 department store chain, said Wednesday that it has told its salaried staff members that their pay next year will be frozen at present levels. The freeze, which the company said will be reviewed as conditions warrant, is part of a companywide cost-reduction program and affects about 20,000 employees. Sears' sales have been under pressure in recent months.

A sinking stock market and rounds of pink slips scared consumers away from stores in March, retailers said Thursday, making it the slowest month in an already sluggish year. The numbers also triggered a number of sellers to lower first-quarter profit expectations. Sears, Roebuck & Co., Federated Department Stores Inc., teen clothier Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. and even industry giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. each warned Wall Street that earnings were likely to disappoint.

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.

Exide Corp. pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracy charges and will pay a $27.5-million fine over five years to end a U.S. criminal investigation into auto battery sales to former customer Sears, Roebuck & Co. The government investigated charges that the company manufactured a defective product that didn't meet the standard for DieHard batteries.

Sears, Roebuck & Co. has signed a deal that will put one of its new Great Indoors home decorating stores into Empire Center, a 103-acre development proposed by Los Angeles-based Zelman Development Co. on former Lockheed aerospace property at Empire Avenue and the I-5 Freeway in Burbank. Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears reached an agreement with Zelman Retail Partners Inc.

Three days after a group of major auto makers announced the creation of a massive virtual marketplace to buy and sell auto parts, two of the world's largest retailers, Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Carrefour, are creating their own online exchange to buy up to $80 billion a year in retail products for their stores. GlobalNetXchange, which will be majority owned by Sears and Carrefour, will become the main conduit for the two companies to buy everything from towels to baby powder for their shelves.

Sears, Roebuck & Co. said Tuesday that its fourth-quarter profit will beat forecasts by about 20%, a sign that Chairman Arthur Martinez's strategy to revive the second-biggest U.S. retailer may work. Shares in Sears rose $1.50 to close at $31.56 on the New York Stock Exchange. Martinez last year cut prices on basic clothing such as T-shirts, brought in new managers, and dumped the old "Softer Side of Sears" campaign to try to pull sales out of a two-year slump.

A federal grand jury in Illinois is investigating auto battery sales by Sears, Roebuck & Co. and its former chief supplier of the batteries, Exide Corp., according to a subpoena obtained by Bloomberg News. The prospect of criminal charges stemming from the battery sales comes months after the companies paid $3.7 million to settle civil claims by Florida's attorney general that they sold used auto batteries to consumers as new.

* Sears, Roebuck & Co. said it named Jeffrey Boyer chief financial officer, replacing Julian Day, who was promoted in September to help Chief Executive Arthur Martinez turn the company around. Boyer, 41, has been the retailer's controller since 1998. Sears hasn't yet named a new controller.