Kohl’s CEO Michael Bender has revealed that customers and staffers do not need to worry about more intense store closures this year as he focuses on turning around the flailing retailer.
In 2025, the beleaguered department store chain shuttered 27 stores across 15 states, along with an e-commerce fulfillment center in California – with then-CEO Tom Kingsbury calling the closures a “necessary” step to “support the health and future of our business.”
When Bender took the helm in November — becoming the company’s fourth full-time CEO in three years after scandal-ridden Ashley Buchanan was fired from the job — customers feared that he would plan more closures in an attempt to boost sales at the Wisconsin-based retailer.
During a post-earnings call last week, Bender told an investor who asked whether he was planning additional store closures that he “would not anticipate any sort of grand plan of saying we’re taking stores out or adding stores at this point.”
He said more than 90% of Kohl’s roughly 1,150 locations are still profitable, though the company will be looking into the “hygiene” of each store to make sure they are “positioned in the right spot” for growth.
“The focus for us is actually on optimizing what we already have, and we’ll be focused on making sure that we continue to push the store’s productivity as far as we can going forward,” he added.
Like many other department store chains, Kohl’s has been struggling for years to turn around declining sales amid heated competition from e-commerce rivals like Amazon, Temu and Shein.
In its most recent quarter, same-store sales plunged 2.8% – though earnings per share were $1.07, well above Wall Street estimates of 86 cents.
Same-store sales fell 3.1% over the full fiscal year 2025.
Though shares in Kohl’s jumped after Bender was named CEO last year, the stock is down more than 37% so far this year – closing at $12.69 on Tuesday.
Bender – a longtime retail veteran who worked at Victoria’s Secret, PepsiCo and Walmart – was named interim CEO after Kohl’s fired Buchanan in May over conflicted business ties with a secret romantic partner.
Buchanan and Chandra Holt, founder of coffee business Incredibrew, kept their relationship hidden from three major retailers over a period of at least five years – even as the two lived together in a ritzy $3 million mansion in Texas, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Since becoming head honcho, Bender has ramped up efforts to draw in cash-strapped customers by focusing on private-label brands, discounts and new item releases.
He has also focused on streamlining Kohl’s partnerships with Sephora and Babies “R” Us.
