Target Australia

Target Australia Pty Ltd

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Founded	1926 as Empororama 1968 as Lindsay's 1973 as Target.
Headquarters	Geelong, VIC, Australia
Number of locations	308+
Key people	Guy Russo (CEO of Target and Kmart & Managing Director - Target)
Revenue	A$ 3.5 billion (2016)[1]
Operating income	A$ -195 million (2016)[1]
Total assets	A$ 1.7 billion (2016)
Number of employees	16,000+ [2]
Parent	Wesfarmers Group
Website	Target.com.au

Target Australia Pty Ltd (formerly Empororama and Lindsay's) is a mid-price department store chain and Australia's largest (by store number), owned by Wesfarmers. It operates 183 Target stores and 125 Target Country stores across Australia making 308 combined stores with its national store support office located in North Geelong, Victoria.^[3] An established and well known retailer, the company sells branded clothing, cosmetics, toys, homewares, electrical, fitness and consumer electronics.

History

A Target department store in Castletown Shoppingworld, Townsville, with the old look.

Beginnings

In 1926, George Lindsay and Alex McKenzie opened their first store in Geelong selling dress fabrics, manchester and furnishings, and progressively established stores in Victoria, maintaining the policy "Half the Profit, Twice the Turnover".

In 1968 Myer Emporium Ltd purchased the chain of 14 stores with the idea of re-inventing the chain as a "discount department store", with the company subsequently renamed Lindsay's Target Pty Ltd.^[4] Despite the similar logo, name and type of outlets, the company carried no corporate connection to US department store Target.^[5]

In March 1973, it was renamed Target Australia Pty Ltd. By 1982, Myer was operating 27 stores under the Target brand, but sold these, principally to Coles.^[6]

Another older Target outlet within the Northgate Shopping Centre, Glenorchy, a northern suburb of Hobart.

Coles Myer era

In August 1985, Myer Emporium Ltd and GJ Coles & Coy Ltd merged to become Coles Myer Limited. In 1996, Coles Myer merged the Target and Fosseys brands, and their first specialty store Baby Target was established. Then in 1998, their second speciality store, Target Home opened. Fosseys stores were later renamed Target Country, becoming the third speciality store under the Target name.

In 2001, Target announced its first ever loss, to the sum of $43m. New senior management was soon put in place, with Target repositioning itself from a store directly competing with Coles Myer stablemate Kmart and Woolworths Limited's Big W, to a more stylish, up-market, but still value-for-money, alternative to speciality stores. Store fittings and layouts were altered to reflect this change. In 2006 Target appointed Launa Inman as managing director, named Telstra Business Women of the Year in 2003, a result of her achievements as an apparel retail buyer for the company. Her position saw Target's $32 million loss at the end of 2000 turn into a $68 million profit 18 months later.^[7]

Wesfarmers era

Prior to its November 2007 takeover of Coles Group, Wesfarmers stated in August 2007 that it would consider converting some Kmart stores to the Target brand.^[8]

In November 2011, Dene Rogers, the former chief executive of North American retailer Sears Canada, replaced Inman as Target's managing director,^[10] but by April 2013 Rogers had been replaced by former chief operations director at Coles Stuart Machin.^[11]

Target announced in April 2016 it would relocate its Geelong head office to Melbourne, resulting in an unspecified number of redundancies.^[12]

In 2016, Wesfarmers restructured Target and Kmart under a single 'Department Stores' division, headed by Kmart managing director Guy Russo. An accounting scandal that created $21 million in fraudulent profits was reported on 11 April 2016.^[13] Although it is not believed CEO Stuart Machin orchestrated or ordered the accounting irregularities, he took the blame for the scandal and departed Target.^[14]

In June 2016 at a Wesfarmers annual strategy briefing Guy Russo announced that Target would be exiting toy sales, pet care and luggage.^[15]

Following the April 2016 announcement of the closure of Target's Geelong headquarters, Wesfarmers confirmed in December that Target would relocate to Williams Landing, Melbourne in late 2018.^[16]

In June 2017, Wesfarmers announced that Target and Kmart would be merging some of their back office operations including procurement. Some Target stores would be converted to Kmart stores and some would be closed.^[17][18]

Baby Target and Target Home (discontinued)

A Target store in Greensborough Plaza, Greensborough, a north-eastern suburb of Melbourne. This picture was taken in October 2012, and like many other national chains within this shopping centre, the old Target Home logo remains at the second level entrance (the third level entrance contains the regular Target logo). Because both levels of space used to house a Myer department store, Target has a larger range of products here.

In 1996, Target introduced Baby Target as a standalone store format specifically for baby products. The concept had limited success. Another format tried by Target was the homewares-themed store Target Home, but was later discontinued. Target Home stores have since been phased out to become larger Target stores, and still stock a larger range of homewares in a number of locations in Australia and New Zealand including Joondalup and Carousel in WA, Edwardstown in SA, Highpoint and Greensborough in VIC, and Warringah Mall in NSW and Tauranga, North Island.

Fosseys and Target Country

Fosseys was established in 1926 at George Street, Sydney by Alfred Bristow Fossey and grew to 148 stores throughout Australia, with an annual turnover of $300 million. As part of the acquisition of Grace Bros., which had purchased J.B. Young of Queanbeyan who owned Fossey's, Myer and later Coles Myer came to own Fossey's. Coles Myer used the Fosseys brand to unify a range of smaller variety stores trading under a range of other names, including Coles Variety stores, which had been the foundation of GJ Coles & Coy Ltd.

A Target Country store in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.

Coles Myer merged the operations of Fosseys with Target in 1996, redesigning Fosseys stores to focus on family apparel retailing in rural Australia. It also introduced Fosseys-branded merchandise with attributes of value, convenience and confidence. By 2001, all Fosseys stores located close to Target stores were closed; the remaining Fosseys stores, rebranded Target Country, continue to focus on apparel sales in smaller towns without full-merchandise Target stores. From the mid 1990s onwards there was a rebranding of some Grace Bros stores in regional NSW to Target. This included a large number of stores which had previously been part of the Dubbo-based Western Stores. Locations which converted from Grace Bros. to Target and then Target Country include Bathurst, Cowra, West Wyalong, Forbes, and Young.

As of 1 July 2007, employees of Fosseys (Australia) Pty Ltd were transferred to Target Australia Pty Ltd, and Fosseys as a legal entity was dissolved. As at June 2008, there were 118 Target Country stores throughout Australia.^[19]

Target Country Charters Towers

In Charters Towers, Queensland the long established Pollard's Store became a Fosseys and is now, most likely the only Target or Target Country store which features leadlight windows.

Target Country Charters Towers, North Queensland  Shop window display cabinets Target Country Charters Towers, North Queensland  Exterior Target Country Charters Towers, North Queensland  Interior Target Country Charters Towers, North Queensland

Advertising

Target's marketing strategy employs the slogan. "Higher quality, lower prices"..

Previously, the company used "Get More. Pay Less.", "100% Happy", "We're Not Happy, Unless You Are" and "Target - for Fashion, Quality and Value". "It's Target." "YAY". These slogans were featured in-store and in advertising.

TV commercials

In 2010, Target Australia Pty Ltd became the first^[20] Australian company to launch a 3D advertisement in Australian cinema. The advertisement was for the 2010 Toy Sale and received much media interest.

Designers for Target

In March 2007, Target launched a 42-piece winter collection designed by Stella McCartney. This exclusive Australian launch was heralded as one of the biggest retail coups of the year, and Australian media noted frenzied activity in Target stores on the morning of the launch.^[21] A number of metropolitan stores sold out of the range as soon as 10 minutes after opening, and items from the collection soon began appearing for sale on eBay at inflated prices. Another Stella McCartney collection was released in October 2010, to lesser fanfare.

In May 2007, Target announced its next designer range from Joshua Goot to a mixed reaction,^[22] and subsequently produced a collaboration with American designer Zac Posen in April 2008. In the same month, Australian fashion designer Collette Dinnigan released a range of lingerie labelled the 'Wild Hearts' collection.^[23]

In February 2012, Target launched a line of women's lingerie designed by American burlesque dancer and model Dita Von Teese. Throughout 2012, Target also announced designer collaborations for children with Collette Dinnigan^[24] and Ksubi^[25] and Roberto Cavalli^[26] for women.

In March 2016, Target launched a collection of women's, men's, children's and home wares by Jean-Paul Gaultier.^[27]

References

External links

• Official website
• Online shop
• Designers For Target website