Sears Holdings Corp., owner of the Sears and Kmart retail chains and Kenmore appliances, will reorganize into separate business units after a year of falling sales and diminishing profits, Bloomberg reported.

Sears will designate a leader to each business and executive advisers to oversee performance, Sears spokesman Chris Brathwaite said in a Jan. 19 e-mail. The biggest U.S. department store company also owns Lands’ End clothing stores and sells Craftsman tools and DieHard batteries at its Sears and Kmart chains.

Sears Chairman Edward Lampert’s focus on strengthening profit led to falling sales at established stores every quarter since he combined Kmart and Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 2005. Profit margins through Feb. 2 might decrease for a third straight quarter following two years of steady growth, Sears said last week. Since putting the retailer together, Lampert has centralized functions, giving executives responsibilities that stretch across the company.

Sears, whose stock price fell 39 percent last year in Nasdaq Stock Market trading, will give “greater control, authority and autonomy” to the individual businesses, Brathwaite said in the statement.

The retailer, which blamed a rise in competition and “unfavorable economic conditions” for the decline in fourth-quarter profits, also posted decreases in the second and third quarters, with third-quarter net income sinking 99 percent.