Target Australia

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, 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.

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 and whole departments such as the self-service confectionery and home decorator (paint) were removed from all stores. 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]

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]

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.