Sears Begins Brand Sales Channel Diversifcation

Sears Holdings (SHLD), after recently announcing it was dividing its businesses up essentially by their major brands, has begun to spread the channels through which they are sold.

The AP reports to that Sears’ Diehard Division is teaming up with Orange County Choppers (OCC) for a special event.

Sears will unveil DieHard and Craftsman branded bikes, designed by Orange County Choppers. Sears also announced a marketing agreement with Orange County Choppers (OCC) that makes DieHard the “Official Battery of Orange County Choppers”. With this agreement, all custom motorcycles created as part of the “American Chopper” TV series (as seen on TLC) will be powered by DieHard.

In addition, the partnership will include the following:
— OCC will sell DieHard batteries in their new retail store in Newburgh, NY
— DieHard battery signage in the OCC shop along with a unique battery maintainer station
— A link to diehardbatteries.com from orangecountychoppers.com
— DieHard branding on shirts worn by OCC mechanics

Do you remember the Monty Python Piece from way back where they walked around chanting “spam, spam, spam, spam,” incessantly? When you think of Sears Holdings, the thought process needs to be “brands, brands, brands, brands”.

This is the first of many deal that will dramatically expand the sales channels of the Diehard, Craftsmen and Kenmore brands. Now that the separation has been announced and according to all accounts, management has been given the “green light” to find deals, we ought to see them coming fast and furious. Look for Craftsmen tools to be sold in Home Depot (HD) and Lowe’s (LOW) before the summer ends.

As far back as November I have been focused on the brands rather than the stores. What we now need to see when Sears reports next Q1 are the results broken out by division.

Disclosure (“none” means no position): Long SHLD, None