Target 2011 Annual Report Download - page 3

TARGET 2011 ANNUAL REPORT | 1
To Our
Shareholders
Target turns 50 this year, and, while our 2011 nancial
results represent a single-year’s achievement, it’s an
achievement based on our nearly ve decades in business.
Sales reached a new high of $68.5 billion,
we set a new record for earnings per
share, and our shopping experience clearly
resonated with consumers across the
country. All year long, our team executed
with spirit, discipline and the thoughtful
approach to innovation that comes
with a half-century’s perspective. As a
result, Target is well positioned to deliver
continued protable growth and meaningful
shareholder reward.
In 1962, discount retailing as we know it
didn’t exist. Then, Target and our best-
known discount-store peers opened for
business, responding to growing consumer
demand for value and convenience—
demands that are still paramount today.
When Target opened, we set out not only
to meet these demands, but to create a
different kind of experience. We believed
we could offer our guests high-quality, well-
designed merchandise at low prices. We
believed we could create a comfortable,
fun shopping environment that offered
the convenience of self service and a
friendly team available to help. We believed
we could save guests time by selling a
well-curated assortment of groceries and
commodities alongside fashions for their
families and homes. And we believed
it was our responsibility to help create
strong, healthy, safe communities.
These beliefs continue to guide our
business and were evident throughout
2011 in our:
•Differentiatedproductassortment—at
exceptional values—of trusted national
brands, quality owned brands and
exclusive offerings, including our design
collaborations with Missoni and Calypso
St. Barth and celebrity partnerships
with Shaun White and Gwen Stefani;
•Ambitiousstore-remodelprogram,
which, combined with new
store openings, brought fresh-
food assortments and our latest
merchandising reinventions to more
than 400 additional stores in 2011;
•Increasedinvestmentindeliveringa
superior brand experience that allows
guests to shop where, when and how
they like – and will attract more urban
guests in 2012, as we open our new
CityTarget stores, and more Canadian
guests in 2013;
•Evenstrongerguestloyalty,evidenced
by more frequent visits and increased
spending across categories by guests
who saved an additional 5% when they
usedtheirTargetREDcard;
•Funandaspirationalmarketingapproach
that reects guests as they are—and as
they want to be;
•Continuinglegacyofgivingandservice,
including our School Library Makeover
program, through which team members
revitalized 42 elementary-school libraries
around the country;
•Andoursteadfastcommitmenttohigh
standards for the way we conduct
business and support our team members’
personal, career and nancial goals.
Looking ahead, we’ve set ambitious goals
of increasing annual sales to $100 billion
or more and growing our earnings per
share to at least $8 by 2017. As we have
since 1962, we’ll achieve our goals by
balancing disciplined management with
our never-ending quest to deliver what’s
new and what’s next for our guests, and
by leveraging the energy and talents of our
365,000 team members. With our tremen-
dous team and our collective commitment
to the principles that have driven our
success so far, I’m endlessly optimistic
about Target’s next 50 years in business.
Gregg Steinhafel | Chairman,
PresidentandCEO,Target