Sears CEO says turning retailer around similar to Obama's battle to close Guantanamo

Getting long-struggling Sears to stop bleeding cash has been about as easy as closing the U.S. military prison in Cuba, according to Chief Executive Edward Lampert.

Speaking at the company's annual shareholders meeting last week, Lampert compared his quest to President Barack Obama's struggle to close the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay.

It's "not so easy," said Lampert, who is also the retailer's biggest investor. "Our focus right now is to show people that we can get this company back to profitability."

More than a decade after he merged Sears and the formerly bankrupt Kmart, the 53-year-old Lampert is still trying to find a formula that will lift the chains out their protracted slump.

The hedge fund manager has invested heavily in digital operations and a loyalty program, the latter of which accounts for about three-quarters of sales. Yet the company has posted losses for five straight years.

It's Lampert's intention to return to profit this year, though that's not a formal forecast, Lampert told reporters. To do so, Sears is closing stores "more aggressively," he said.

It is also opening an appliance-only store in Colorado.

Once the biggest U.S. retailer, Sears has been selling and spinning off assets as it continues to use more cash than it generates. A large portion of its most valuable store sites went into a real estate investment trust that brought in about $2.7 billion in proceeds last year. The move followed previous transactions that separated its Lands' End clothing unit and most of its Canadian business.

Yet the retailer lost $1.1 billion last year, making a total of $8.2 billion in losses since 2012, as its cash burn accelerated. That trend prompted the company's largest shareholder after Lampert to take a more active role.