The Target Corporation – Company Overview
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| Company | The Target Corporation |
| Headquarters | 1000 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403, USA |
| Chairman and CEO | Brian C. Cornell |
| Executive Vice President and CFO | Catherine R. Smith |
| Industry | Retail |
| Type | Public |
| Founder | 1902 |
| Founded | George Dayton |
| NYSE stock symbol | TGT |
| Sales | $73,785 million USD (2015) |
| Gross margin | $21,788 million USD (2015) |
| Net earnings | $3,363 million USD (2015) |
| Employees | 314,000 (2015) |
| Website | http://www.target.com/ |
| Corporate website | https://corporate.target.com/ |
| IR contact number | 1.800.775.3110 |
| IR email address | [email protected] |
The Target Corporation is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, with over 1,900 stores across the US and Canada. It is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The company was founded in 1902 by George Dayton as the Dayton Dry Goods Company. Dayton had a strong belief in “the higher ground of stewardship” and his business ethics led the company to become well known for dependable merchandise and fair business practices.
George Dayton remained President of the company until his death in 1938 and his sons would go on and take control of the business.
In 1961 the Dayton Corporation announced that it would be opening new stores across across the country that combined “the best of the fashion world with the best of the discount world, a quality store with quality merchandise at discount prices, and a discount supermarket”, in addition to “loads of well-lighted parking…for 1,200 cars.”
Choosing the name for the new store proved to be a difficult task, with a staff debate of more than 200 possible names. The company eventually decided to call the stores “Target”. The reason for choosing the name was because “as a marksman’s goal is to hit the center bulls-eye, the new store would do much the same in terms of retail goods, services, commitment to the community, price, value and overall experience.”
In 1975 Target was the number one revenue producer of the Dayton-Hudson Corporation.
In 2000 The Dayton Hudson Corporation decided to change its name to Target Corporation.
The company’s main competitors are other discount retailers, such as Walmart and Kmart.
In 2015 Target closed all of its Canadian outlets because of lackluster sales numbers.
Target Corporation – Stores and Distribution Centers
As of January 2016 Target Corporation operates over 1,792 stores across the U.S, including:
- 289 General Merchandise Stores
- 1,245 Expanded Food Assortment Stores
- 251 SuperTarget Stores
- 8 CityTarget Stores
The company has 40 distribution centers:
- 29 Regional Distribution Centers
- 4 Food Distribution Centers
- 4 Import Warehouses
- 3 Target.Com Fulfillment Centers
The Target Corporation has the following own brands:
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Archer Farms®
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Market Pantry®
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Threshold™
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Simply Balanced™
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Merona®
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up & up®
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Boots & Barkley®
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Room Essentials®
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Wine Cube®
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Circo®
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Smith & Hawken®
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Xhilaration®
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Embark®
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Spritz™
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Ava & Viv®
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Gilligan & O’Malley®
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Sutton & Dodge®
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Sonia Kashuk®
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Exclusive Brands:
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C9 by Champion®
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DENIZEN® from Levi’s®
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Nate Berkus for Target
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Cherokee®
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Fieldcrest®
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Oh Joy!® for Target
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Mossimo®
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Genuine Kids® from OshKosh®
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Hand Made Modern®
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Liz Lange® for Target
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Just One You® made by carter’s®
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Shaun White
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Kid Made Modern®
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The Target Corporation – Financial Results
| Key figures (in millions of USD) | 2015* | 2014* |
| Sales | $73,785 | $72,618 |
| Gross margin | $21,788 | $21,340 |
| Net earnings from continuing operations | $3,321 | $2,449 |
| Net earnings (loss) | $3,363 | $(1,636) |
| Total assets | $40,262 | $41,172 |
| Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period | $2,210 | $695 |
| Cash and cash equivalents at end of period | $4,046 | $2,210 |
*Year ended January 30, 2016 and January 31, 2015
Source: “The Target Corporation – 2015 Form 10-K”