Martha Stewart says she'll stay with Kmart despite its Chapter 11 filing

DETROIT - Martha Stewart won&#39;t pull her line of home and garden products from Kmart stores &#34;for the foreseeable future,&#34; despite the retailing giant&#39;s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. <br> <br> The Martha Stewart Everyday brand, which includes sheets, towels, paints and kitchenware, is Kmart&#39;s largest volume-producing label, generating about $1.5 billion in sales last year. <br> <br> Stewart said Kmart owed about $13 million to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia at the time of Tuesday&#39;s filing, but added that the company is confident Kmart will take steps to make payments as fully and promptly as possible. <br> <br> &#34;Going forward, Kmart will continue to sell Martha Stewart Everyday brand products under the terms of our contract for the foreseeable future,&#34; she said in a statement Tuesday. <br> <br> Martha Stewart Omnimedia has a provision in its contract allowing it to leave Kmart in bankruptcy, but that would have to be approved by a bankruptcy judge. <br> <br> Analysts say keeping the brand is a must for the No. 3 discount retailer. Losing Martha Stewart &#34;would be a huge loss to the company,&#34; said Eric Beder, an analyst with Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co. <br> <br> &#34;What makes people come to your store ... is the type of merchandise that you yourself have exclusively,&#34; said Ulysses A. Yannas, an analyst with Buckman, Buckman & Reid. <br> <br> Kmart can&#39;t rely solely on Martha Stewart. It also carries Sesame Street and Disney brands, but analysts have said the company needs to do more to make sure customers associate those brands with the Troy-based discount retailer. <br> <br> Some said Martha Stewart needs Kmart and is unlikely to leave. Martha Stewart Living receives about 13 percent of its revenue from Kmart, according to Kevin Gruneich, an analyst at Bear Stearns. <br> <br> &#34;Considering how much sales she gets at Kmart ... I don&#39;t think she can easily do without for any period of time,&#34; Yannas said. <br> <br>