Target hiring for upcoming jobs in Manitoba

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/02/2012 (5172 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Target has begun hiring for its first Manitoba stores, but shoppers will have to wait another year and a bit to set foot in them.

On Friday, the Walmart rival and U.S. retailing giant announced the locations of the first 60 stores it plans for Canada. All of them will be opening in late March or early April 2013, and will each employ between 150 and 200 people.

They are all Zellers locations Target acquired last year from Hudson’s Bay Co. — stores on which it will be spending $10 million to $11 million each to convert to the Target format.

The list includes the Zellers stores in Kildonan Place Shopping Centre and Southdale Centre in Winnipeg and in Shoppers Mall in Brandon.

Target acquired the leasehold rights to five Zellers outlets in Manitoba and up to 220 countrywide when it struck a $1.8-billion deal early last year with HBC. That number was later pared down to 189.

The company wasn’t saying Friday when the conversion of the other two Manitoba stores, at the Polo Park and Grant Park shopping centres in Winnipeg, will be complete.

“We are in the process of confirming store locations and will be making more announcements to confirm Target stores in the coming months,” Target Canada spokeswoman Lisa Gibson said in an email.

“The timing of the announcements is driven by legal requirements, construction period to significantly remodel the site and the proposed opening dates.”

Gibson also didn’t reveal when Target plans to begin closing the Zellers stores to allow for renovations to begin.

“We will not confirm information regarding stores until Zellers has notified its employees,” she said.

In preparation for the wave of new store openings — the company said it plans to open between 125 and 135 between now and the end of next year and expects to have 200 by 2022 — Target has begun posting job openings on its website (www.target.ca).

The approximately 60 positions appearing on the site Friday included a store team leader and district team leader for Winnipeg and a store team leader for Brandon.

Target is also looking to strike deals with Canadian suppliers and got the ball rolling last September when it signed a long-term wholesale distribution agreement with the Sobeys grocery store chain that will see Sobeys distribute temperature-controlled products to its Canadian stores.

On Thursday, Target opened a pop-up store in Toronto to give Canadians a taste of what’s to come in fashion. The store featured its collaborative line with Canadian-raised Jason Wu, whose creations have catapulted the designer to international fashion fame. The event attracted a lineup of shoppers that snaked nearly a city block around the makeshift venue.

Target Canada president Tony Fisher said the temporary shop opening was a chance for the retailer to introduce the brand to Canadians in a “very unique way.”

Fisher said there will be other events in the lead-up to next year’s launch, adding the retailer “can’t wait” to partner with Canadian designers to bring their brand to life at Target.

Construction will start later this summer on the first stores, with locations opening first in the Toronto area, Fisher said. The company will work west and then return east.

HBC hasn’t said yet what it plans to do with the 84 Zellers stores Target didn’t take, including three in Winnipeg. They are located in the Northgate and Fort Richmond shopping centres and in the basement of the downtown Bay store.

An HBC spokesman could not be reached Friday.

 

— with files from The Canadian Press

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca