Kmart Corp.’s chief restructuring officer Ron Hutchison said Wednesday the company expected to announce layoffs of an unspecified number of employees in the next two months due to continued weak sales.

The bankrupt retailer is reviewing staffing levels at company headquarters, distribution centers and stores, Hutchison told reporters following a bankruptcy court hearing in Chicago.

In this 2002 file photo workers leave Lawrence's Kmart Distribution Center, 2400 Kresge Road.

Kmart operates a distribution center in Lawrence that employs about 500 people in Lawrence. Kmart corporate officials said they were uncertain whether the upcoming layoffs would include employees at the center.

“We think the bulk of the impact will be at our corporate level, but we can’t rule out our distribution centers,” Susan Dennis, a spokeswoman for Kmart, said Wednesday.

Employees at the plant said they had heard of the announcement, but said they were given no information about whether the Lawrence facility would be affected. Many, however, said they were nervous.

“It’s tough because you never know if you’re going to come to work one morning and see the big gates locked,” said a female employee of the center, who declined to give her name.

Other employees also said the company was beginning to routinely send home full-time workers before they had accumulated 40 hours in a week.

“It used to be that they would never do that,” said an employee who also declined to give his name. “Now, even if you’ve been here for 30 years, they’ll send you home before you get your 40 hours.”

On Monday, Kmart reported a net loss for June as same-store sales dropped 8.7 percent from a year earlier.

Kmart wants to “align” staffing with sales levels, Hutchinson said. The company still does not expect to make any major store closing announcements this year, although there may be some individual store closings based on lease expirations.

The Troy, Mich.-based firm generates about 30 percent of its revenue in the fourth quarter, so Hutchison said it was in the company’s best interest to keep stores open through the end of the year, in order to capture the most revenue.

Kmart has repeatedly said it wanted to wait until after a full holiday season before it completes its reorganization plan.

The discount retailer extended the period for which it can file a plan for reorganization through February 2003.

As of May, Kmart had said it would close 283 stores, or 13 percent, and lay off 22,000 of its 250,000 employees.

The court approved Kmart’s licensing agreement with Route 66 apparel, and the retailer had to pay them $2.6 million in pre-petition debt. Route 66 constituted about 12 percent of Kmart’s apparel sales in 2001.

Shares of Kmart were up 1 cent at 62 cents, off a 52-week high of $13.50, up from a year low of 50 cents.