<p>During Target’s Financial Community Meeting Webcast, the company announced that it is planning to lessen the rate of U.S. expansion in response to the slow economic growth environment.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> “We were built and ready to continue growing at a pace of 30 or 40 or 50 new stores a year,” said Gregg Steinhafel, Chairman, President, and CEO. “That’s just not going to happen in this environment.” Steinhafel suggested that the company needed to re-evaluate how many people are in between the stores, running the stores and the headquarters themselves, and all the people that are being used as support help. He continued to mention that every dollar must “work a lot more aggressively throughout the enterprise.”<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> In addition, Steinhafel referred to the ramping down of Target’s PFresh remodel program, noting that the company doesn’t need as many people involved in it now that the program has almost completely rolled out.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> It appears that Target’s efforts to scale back its expansion are to ultimately operate the enterprise more efficiently than ever before. Although the company has been expense-focused over the last five years, Steinhafel affirms that the company is extracting as much efficiency as it possibly can.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Steinhafel also updated investors on the initial sales of Target stores in Canada, saying that although they have fallen well short of expectations, the company remains very confident in the long-term potential of these stores and that they are in great locations in strong markets with demographics that are ideal for its strategy.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href=" http://investors.target.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=65828&p=irol-IRHome" target="_new"> Target </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
