TARGET (AUSTRALIA)

'Target Australia Pty Ltd' is an Australian discount department store chain owned by Coles Group. It operates over 350 department stores and its head office is located in North Geelong, Victoria. It sells clothing, cosmetics, toys, homewares, electrical and electronics goods. Rights to the Target logo and name were granted to Myer Emporium Ltd. (now Coles Group), by the Dayton Hudson Corporation (now known as Target Corporation). The Target logo in Australia differs from the U.S. version by the use of lower case letters and the addition of a full stop.

Contents

History

Baby Target

Fosseys and Target Country

Services

Tag line

Annual sales

Designers For Target

References

External links

History

In 1925, 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 (now Coles Group, previously Coles Myer), 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. In March 1973, it was renamed Target Australia Pty Ltd. 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 born. Then in 1998, their second specialty store, Target Home opened. Fosseys stores were later renamed Target Country, becoming the third specialty store.
In 2001 Target announced its first ever loss, to the sum of $43m. New senior management was put in place, following which Target repositioned itself from a discount department store (competing with Coles Myer stablemate Kmart and Woolworths Limited's Big W), to a more stylish, value-for-money alternative to a specialty stores. Store fittings and layouts were altered, with Target competing with retailers such as Jeans West, Sportsgirl, and other specialty stores targeted at the teenage, to early thirties market. Target's current managing director is Launa Inman, 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 into a $68 million profit 18 months later.

Baby Target

Baby Target stores started appearing in 1996 as Target's first specialty store. They sell numerous baby-related products.
The concept was not as successful as Target had anticipated, and only two Baby Target stores still operate (one in Victoria at Northland, Preston and the other in Golden Grove, South Australia).

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. 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.
Coles Myer merged the operations of Fosseys with Target in 1996, redesigning Fosseys stores to focus on family apparel and homewares. It also introduced Fosseys-branded merchandise with attributes of value, convenience and confidence, but by 2001, all Fosseys stores located close to Target stores were closed and the remaining Fosseys stores renamed Target Country.
By 2006, there were 104 Target Country stores throughout Australia. As of July 1st, 2007, employees of Fosseys (Australia) Pty Ltd were transferred to Target Australia Pty Ltd, and Fosseys as a company name was dissolved.

Services

Target Australia provides the following services for their customers:

★ Layby

★ Rainchecks (On catalogue items only, does not apply if "no raincheck" is specified)

★ Price Check Points

★ Parcel Pick-Up

★ Home Delivery (service fee applies)

★ Inter-store Transfers (limitations apply)

★ Gift cards (Target exclusive & Coles Group)

Tag line

Target's marketing strategy employs the tag line "100% Happy", featured in-store and in advertising. Previously, the company used "We're Not Happy, Unless You Are", after "Target - for Fashion, Quality and Value".

Annual sales

Target has two major sales a year; its annual "Massive Home Sale" and the popular "Toy Sale" (which was previously marketed as "Australia's Biggest Toy Sale", but there was no way to validate this claim so it had to be removed) which is always held during July. Seasonal launches such as the "Denim Nation" and "Free Fusion" campaigns for clothing are also undertaken throughout the year.

Designers For Target

In March 2007, the exclusive Australian launch of the Stella McCartney designer collection, was heralded as one of the biggest retail coups of the year. Target engaged Stella McCartney to design a 42-piece winter collection and Australian media noted frenzied acitvity in Target stores on the morning of the launch.^[1] A number of metropolitan stores had sold out of the range as soon as 10 minutes after opening. Items from the collection were appearing on sale on eBay at inflated prices within only a short times of stores opening.
In May 2007 Target announced its next designer range from Josh Goot to a mixed reaction^[2]

References

1. Consumers flock to buy McCartney's Target designs
2. Can Josh Goot do a Stella?

External links

★ Official website

★ Designers For Target