
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 18, 1990                   TAG: 9004180073
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SEARS INTRODUCES ITS `BRAND CENTRAL'

Sears, Roebuck & Co. will expand its home appliances and electronics lines to more than 80 names when it opens Brand Central "superstores within stores" at Roanoke and five other Western Virginia locations today.

The expansion "stands out more than a department" in an area of 11,000 square feet devoted to appliances and electronics on the second level of the Valley View Mall store, said James M. Hayslett, Brand Central manager.

He said 3,800 square feet of space was added along with 22 employees. Brand Central operations will be opened by Sears today in Martinsville, Christiansburg, Bristol, Lynchburg and Danville, as well as Bluefield, W.Va.

The company will open 192 stores this week and it plans to enlarge its appliances and electronics lines at a total of more than 850 stores by July.

The significance of this move is that Sears is going beyond its own Kenmore line, "hopefully at competitive prices," said William N. Smith, an analyst who follows Sears for Smith Barney on Wall Street.

The company claims that it sells one of every four appliances in the nation.

In the last decade, Sears said the home appliance and electronics business, once offered only by local retail merchants, has become increasingly competitive.

In addition to increasing floor space for these products, the company said it plans to add free-standing Brand Central stores in some markets. "This is a concept, a different strategy, a different way of merchandising that allows us to put more brands in," Hayslett said.

by CNB