Sears Holdings Corp. said Monday its president and chief executive will step down this week, the latest sign of trouble for an ailing retailer that’s struggling to connect with customers and invigorate slumping sales.

Aylwin B. Lewis will be succeeded by W. Bruce Johnson, an executive vice president of supply chain and operations who will fill the role on an interim basis. The company is controlled by Chairman Edward S. Lampert, the hedge-fund kingpin who recently announced plans to reshape it.

The 121-year-old retailer, which owns 3,800 Sears and Kmart stores in the U.S. and Canada, has been plagued by falling sales and increased competition from companies such as Wal-Mart Stores and Target.

Sears shares, which reached a high of $195.18 in April, fell 51 cents to $98.49 in late morning trading Monday after trading as low as $96.04 earlier in the session.

Lewis, 52, was an executive at fast-food chain Yum Brands Inc. with little retail experience when Lampert hired him to become president and CEO of Kmart in 2004. A year later, he assumed the same role for Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears Holdings.

The company said Lewis will also resign from Sears’ board.

“We are entering a new phase in Sears’ evolution as a multichannel retailer, as reflected by the new operational structure we recently announced, and the board has determined that now is the right time to put in place new leadership to take the company forward,” Lampert said in a statement.

Johnson will continue to be a member of the Office of the Chairman. He joined Kmart in 2003 as senior vice president of supply chain and operations and at the time of Sears’ purchase of Kmart was appointed executive vice president of supply chain and operations for the combined company.

He was named to the Office of the Chairman in 2005 and took…