Target Australia

Target Australia (formerly Lindsay's and later Lindsay's Target) is a mid-price department store chain owned by Wesfarmers. It is Australia's largest department store chain by store number, operating 278 stores throughout the country. Products it sells include branded clothing, cosmetics, homewares, electronics, fitness and consumer electronics. The company's national support office is located in Williams Landing.

Not to be confused with Target Corporation or Target Canada.

Target Australia
Subsidiary
IndustryRetail
Foundedas Lindsays in 1926 (1926)
Headquarters
Williams Landing, Victoria
,
Australia
Number of locations
278
Key people
Ian Bailey
(CEO of Department Stores Wesfarmers and Managing Director Kmart) Marina Joanou (Managing Director, Target)
Revenue A$ 2.802 billion (2018)[1]
Number of employees
16,000+[2]
ParentWesfarmers
Websitetarget.com.au

Despite the similar logo, name and type of outlets, Target Australia carries no corporate connection or relation to the US discount retailer, Minneapolis, MN-based Target Corporation.[3]

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, bedding and furnishings.[4] Lindsay had begun his retail empire five years earlier, running a store in Ouyen, Victoria, but moved to Geelong to increase the opportunity for growth.[5] The company progressively established stores throughout Victoria, running with a policy of selling quality goods at half the normal rate of profit.[5]

In 1968, Myer Emporium purchased the chain of 16 stores and renamed the company Lindsay's Target, purchasing the rights of the name and logo of the US Target Corporation and adding it and the formula to the Lindsay's name, moving into the South Australia market with the first discount department store positioned format "Target" store opening in Newton, South Australia in October 1970[4] with an aim to expand the business.[6] The new discount department store quickly established itself throughout Australia, and within 3 years had stores in Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.[5] In March 1973, "Lindsay's" was dropped from the company name when the business was renamed Target Australia Pty Ltd and the mainly Victorian-based "Lindsay's" stores with the positioning of "Sell it for Less" were rolled into the "Target" discount department store group, now carrying over its leading position of quality softgoods to the relatively new "totally different" larger Target discount department store format - while maintaining its base in Geelong.[4]

By 1982, Myer was operating 27 stores under the Target brand, but sold 22 of these with 14 going to GJ Coles & Coy Ltd.[7]

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,[4] and their first speciality store Baby Target was established. Then in 1998, their second speciality store, Target Home opened. Fosseys stores were later renamed Target Country,[4] 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.[8]

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.[9]

In May 2009, Target stopped providing free plastic bags for its customers, but in 2013 reversed this decision.[10] In November 2011, Dene Rogers, the former chief executive of North American retailer Sears Canada, replaced Inman as Target's managing director,[11] but by April 2013 Rogers had been replaced by former chief operations director at Coles Stuart Machin.[12]

In February 2016, Wesfarmers restructured Target and Kmart under a single 'Department Stores' division,[2] 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]

Target announced in April 2016 it would relocate its Geelong head office to Melbourne, resulting in an unspecified number of redundancies.[16] Following the April 2016 announcement, Wesfarmers confirmed in December that Target would relocate to Williams Landing in late 2018.[17]

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 while other Target and Target Country stores would be closed.[18][19] As part of the Target to Kmart store conversions, three have taken place, two being in Victoria, at Doncaster East, another at Broadmeadows, and a third in Western Australia at Victoria Park East, all of which were Target's that were converted into Kmart stores.

As of 2020, Target has 284 stores throughout Australia: 191 Target stores, and 93 Target Country stores. There have been 24 closures, 13 Target stores and 11 Target Country stores, since the announcement of store closures in 2016.

In May 2020 further store closures and consolidations were announced with up to 1,300 jobs potentially being lost.[20]

  • 10 to 40 suitable Target locations will convert into Kmart stores and between 10 and 25 further Target stores will be closed.[20]
  • About 52 Country Targets will convert to Kmart. Remaining 50 stores will close[20][21]

Target store formats
A Target store in Greensborough Plaza, Greensborough, a north-eastern suburb of Melbourne in October 2012. 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.

Current Store Formats

Target

Target department stores are the majority of Target stores located throughout Australia, and stock the full range of Target's products.

Target Country

Fosseys
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 JB Young's 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 formerly Fossey's 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.[22]

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.

Former Store Formats

Urban by Target

Urban by Target was a format tried by Target initially at South Yarra, Victoria at The Jam Factory, after taking over a closed Virgin Megastore. The format was introduced in 2010, with a second location opened in 2011, at Flemington, Victoria at Flemington Village. A third location was also opened in 2011, at Pasadena, South Australia, at Pasadena Shopping Centre. The format was smaller than a traditional Target department store, and was focused on clothing and home wares. The location at Flemington was closed down, followed by Pasadena, which remained but converted into a traditional Target department store. South Yarra was renovated with the new logo, in black instead of red, although this location was closed down permanently.

Target Outlet

Target Outlet was a format tried by Target at the Target in Dandenong, Victoria at Dandenong Plaza. The format was discontinued around 2014.

Baby Target

Baby Target logo

In 1996, Target introduced Baby Target as a standalone store format specifically for baby products. The concept had limited success and was ultimately closed down soon after.

Target Home

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 including Joondalup and Carousel in WA, Edwardstown in SA, Highpoint and Greensborough in VIC, and Westfield Warringah Mall in NSW.

Designers for Target

In March 2007, Target launched a 42-piece winter collection designed by Stella McCartney.[23] 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,[24] 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.[25]

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[26] and Ksubi[27] and Roberto Cavalli[28] for women.

In March 2016, Target launched a collection of women's, men's, children's and home wares by Jean-Paul Gaultier.[29]

gollark: I believe I can manually patch the bias tables at runtime.
gollark: Autobias doesn't know about you.
gollark: Uniformly is wrong. Neither.
gollark: I think it has limited clause separation but that might be the other one.
gollark: Admittedly, its NLP is imperfect.

References
  1. "2018 FULL-YEAR RESULTS". Wesfarmers. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
  2. "Department Stores". Wesfarmers. Archived from the original on 7 February 2017.
  3. "Target has a twin in Australia, but they're not related". Star Tribune. Archived from the original on 26 April 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  4. "Our History". Target Australia. Archived from the original on 30 October 2017. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  5. "It all began 50 years ago". The Sydney Morning Herald. 29 March 1971.
  6. "Target store is right on the target". Sydney Morning Herald. 3 June 1971.
  7. "Coles homes in on Target". Sydney Morning Herald. 14 October 1982.
  8. "Vic businesswomen scoop awards". Sydney Morning Herald. 27 October 2003. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  9. "Wesfarmers plans Coles investment, restructuring". Reuters. 16 August 2007. Archived from the original on 11 April 2008. Retrieved 16 August 2007.
  10. Rosemary Anne Sharp (3 October 2013). "Target's plastic bag backdown a loss for the silent majority". The Conversation Australia. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  11. "Target's new chief executive defies the gloom". The Australian. 23 November 2011. Archived from the original on 24 November 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
  12. Jane Harper (8 April 2013). "Stuart Machin replaces Dene Rogers as Target managing director". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 8 October 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  13. Parker, Justine (11 April 2016). "Target accounting scandal: Wesfarmers taking action against staff". ABC Online. Archived from the original on 8 May 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  14. "Ex-Target boss who quit in wake of scandal has new UK job". The Australian. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  15. "Massive changes coming to Target". Archived from the original on 12 August 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  16. "900 Geelong Target jobs in limbo as new boss Guy Russo searches for Melbourne base". Geelong Advertiser. Archived from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  17. Tan, Su-Lin (28 December 2016). "Target Australia to move headquarters to Cedar Woods' Williams Landing". Australian Financial Review. Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  18. "Target, Kmart collaborate to cut costs as Amazon looms". Australian Financial Review. 7 June 2010. Archived from the original on 7 July 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  19. McCauley, Dana (7 June 2017). "Target stores to be 'rebadged' as Kmart, Guy Russo reveals". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 9 June 2017. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
  20. Chalmers, Stephanie (21 May 2020). "Target shuts up to 75 stores and converts others to Kmart, putting up to 1,300 jobs at risk". ABC News (on-line). Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  21. Marsh, Stuart (25 May 2020). "Target's departure: What's next for one of Australia's most iconic retailers". www.9news.com.au. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  22. "Target Country stores address list" (PDF). Target Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2008. Retrieved 20 June 2008.
  23. "Consumers flock to buy McCartney's Target designs". ABC The World Today. 12 March 2007. Archived from the original on 21 November 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2007.
  24. Hoyer, Melissa (20 May 2007). "Can Josh Goot do a Stella?". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 22 June 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2007.
  25. Lawrence, Vanessa (2 July 2009). "Undercover agents". Melbourne: The Age. Archived from the original on 14 December 2009. Retrieved 30 December 2009.
  26. "Collette Dinnigan designs ballet line for Target". 3 October 2012. Archived from the original on 31 October 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
  27. "Ksubi launches kid's collection in collaboration with Target". 26 September 2012. Retrieved 26 September 2012.
  28. "Cavalli joins forces with Target". 8 October 2012. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
  29. "Review: Jean-Paul Gaultier brings punk and glam to Target". 10 March 2016. Archived from the original on 4 August 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
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