U.S.-based retail giant Target Corp. ended months of speculation Friday over its expansion into Quebec in spaces vacated by defunct Canadian giant Zellers.
Target said it will open 16 stores here this fall: seven on Sept. 17, including one in Montreal’s Place Vertu mall, and another nine on Oct. 18.
Since opening its first Canadian outlets last March in Ontario, Target has 68 stores nationwide. It plans to have 124 by the end of 2013.
The chain bought the leases to about 220 of Hudson’s Bay Co.’s Zellers stores in January 2011, planning to renovate about half of them and re-open as Target stores.
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Based in Minneapolis, Minn., Target is North America’s biggest discount retailer after Walmart.
It has had growing pains since expanding into Canada in the spring. Sales of groceries, cosmetics, paper and health-care products have lagged, other items have run out of stock, and prices haven’t been as low as expected.
Last month, a Forum Research consumer survey of 1,500 Canadians found only 27 per cent were “very satisfied” with their experience at Target, down from 32 per cent in April. By contrast, in August, Costo rated 62 per cent and HBC 40 per cent.
In its second quarter ended Aug. 3, Target Canada ran a deficit of $169 million (U.S.) on sales of $275 million, mostly because of $256 million in expansion costs, and helped drive down the parent company’s stock price.
Besides Quebec — where it intends to have 25 stores in all — the chain is opening stores in Nova Scotia and several more in the Ottawa area this fall.
In a news release, Target Canada president Tony Fisher called it an “unprecedented retail expansion covering all 10 provinces across Canada this year.”
“Quebec, Nova Scotia and Ontario offer a variety of culturally diverse markets,” he said, “and we look forward to serving our new guests and engaging with these great communities.”
Fisher is booked to tour the new Target store in Laval with journalists on Sept. 16 and address his company’s Quebec expansion on Sept. 24 to the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal.
Through his Quebec spokesperson last week, the Toronto-based CEO declined a Gazette request for an interview.
Date: September 6, 2013