Target Corp. Accelerates Plans To Close Canadian Stores To Mid-April

Target Corp. will bid a final farewell to Canadians sooner than it originally planed. By mid-April all 133 locations in the country will be shut down permenantly a court-appointed monitor overseeing the exit wrote in a recent filing. That’s about one month ahead of schedule, The Windsor Star reported.

Some locations have already been shuttered — 17 stores closed in mid-March and another six stores were set to close on Monday. By April 2, an additional 55 stores will be closed, the Star reported. "It is anticipated that the pace of delivery of vacate notices ... will continue to increase over the next two weeks," according to a court update filed by the monitor.

The retailing giant announced plans to close its Target Canada operation in January, saying that a botched launch in the country meant it would take years to turn a profit. Most of the Canada stores were opened in 2013. Another hurdle for the company will be how it deals with its landlords, suppliers and others creditors impacted by the closures. Target has lost $1.2 billion in its Canada operations since it first planted its red circle logo in Ontario in March 2013.

Liquidation of the operation’s assets has been underway since February. According to court documents, Target-branded items can’t be sold in the liquidation process because they bear the company’s name or logo. Other items owned by the stores, such as electric scooters and shopping cart corrals, can be sold off.

On Monday, a Canadian court will consider approving the sale of Target intellectual property worth $2.22 million. Target Canada would return in-store and outside signs, 28,000 Target-branded shopping carts and 912,000 logo-bearing shopping bags to U.S. operations, the Star reported. “The external signage cannot be repurposed and in any event has no value based on the third party bids [and] estimates of value that have been received," the monitor wrote in a court filing.

Target Canada said it will save an extra $1.9 million USD, if the U.S. operation accepted responsibility for removing or disposing of the branded items.