Posted Feb 5, 2011, 12:12 AM
|
|
Registered User
|
|
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,854
|
|
More on Target...they are considering some of the small stores in Urban areas
Quote:
U.S. retailer tips its plans — but not its Target locations
By Vito Pilieci, Ottawa Citizen February 4, 2011 6:07 PM
OTTAWA — A senior Target Corp. executive was in Ottawa this week to talk about what residents can expect when the first Target store opens in Canada.
What Michael Francis, Target’s chief marketing officer, wouldn’t discuss, however, was Target’s preferred locations among the leaseholds it is taking over from 220 Zellers store locations across Canada. The $1.8 billion deal announced in January will see Target open between 100 and 150 stores across the country.
Francis would simply say that all Zellers locations are being considered — but then added that too much speculation is being heaped on Target by critics trying to guess its next move. He said Target was well aware of Zellers’s smaller average store size when it bought the locations. The average Zellers is around 100,000 square feet; the average Target in the U.S. covers 130,000 square feet.
Target, however, has been experimenting with different layouts south of the border, including smaller locations, multi-level outlets and downtown stores with no parking, designed for urban dwellers.
“Part of performing a site-by-site evaluation is understanding the nuances that each site presents,” said Francis, who inspected a number of the Ottawa area’s 11 Zellers outlets.
“We operate a variety of unique formats all across the United States. We have a major store in New York City that has no parking. We have smaller stores over two floors. We have a variety of different configurations that allow us to take advantage of both urban opportunities as well as suburban opportunities.”
At least until he finishes his cross-Canada tour, it’s premature to rule out any location of becoming a Target store, he said.
The company hopes to have its preferred locations picked within six months. After that it will launch massive remodelling projects to turn them into the type of Target stores consumers have become accustomed to seeing in the U.S.
Given the high brand awareness of Target in Canada, the company can’t come into the country in name only, Francis noted. Thus, Target will bring to Canada all of the brands and products consumers would find on its American store shelves. And in keeping with the chain’s reputation for hip, chic clothing, Target will look to partner with Canadian designers eager to get their clothes on to store shelves.
“We expect that there will be opportunities to customize our product assortment. But the intention is the full brand experience,” he said. “We would not be well served by having a different version of our brand.”
The Target executive reiterated that the agreement to take over Zellers’s store locations was a real estate deal. Target has not acquired Zellers, its assets or any of its employees. As a result, when those 220 Zellers stores are closed to either be sold or turned into Targets, the employees will need to submit their resumes and compete for jobs at Target. Zellers now operates 276 stores in Canada with around 22,000 employees, including as many as 2,300 in Ottawa.
“Zellers remains a stand-alone operation. They will remain Zellers employees. Our goal is to capitalize on the vast amount of talent in the Canadian workplace and of course that includes the Zellers team members,” he said. “But we believe through this we will create tens of thousands of jobs throughout Canada.”
Francis said the giant American discount retailer has been eyeing an expansion into Canada for some time. He said, the strength of the Canadian economy and the deal the company was able to make with Zellers provided the push it needed.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/retaile...#ixzz1D2SPyyxf
|
|
Prev
Linear Mode
