Sears cutting 245 jobs, mostly at head office, as IT moves to external provider

TORONTO – Sears Canada is cutting 245 jobs, mostly at its head office in Toronto.

A spokesman for Sears says 138 of the jobs are in the retailer’s information technology department, 99 in finance and eight in payroll.

About 200 of the cuts are in the Toronto area, 38 are in Montreal and six in Belleville, Ont.

Spokesman Vincent Power says the workload will be transferred to “external third-party providers whose business expertise includes updated systems and processes that can more efficiently perform the work involved.”

He says the company chose to outsource the work because matching the required expertise would require Sears to invest in areas that are not core to its retail business.

As a result of the change, Sears says it can instead focus its investments on priorities such as better product offerings, updated visual presentation standards, improvements to stores, e-commerce and marketing techniques.

Employees were notified of the cuts Monday and will depart over the next three to six months.