Coles Myer
Coles Myer Ltd. is an Australian public company which operates a number of retail chains.
Early history
The company's history dates back to 1900 when Sidney and Elcon Myer opened a store in Bendigo. Separately, in 1906 the first Coles "variety store" was opened in Melbourne. Both chains grew throughout Australia through growth and acquisitions, and both independently listed on the Australian stock exchange. By the 1980s, Coles primarily operated supermarkets, whilst Myer operated a chain of mid-market department stores. The two companies merged as Coles Myer in 1987.
Businesses
The company now a number of chains of retail outlets, including:
- Myer: upmarket department stores, with a wide selection of name-brand fashion and luxury goods. Very similar stores are branded "Grace Bros." in New South Wales until 2004 when the stores were rebranded as Myer outlets.
- Coles Supermarkets: one of the biggest supermarket chains in Australia.
- K-mart: downmarket department store, roughly equivalent to Wal-Mart stores in the United States.
- Target and Target Country: "soft goods" stores, including clothing, manchester, cosmestics, and the like. "Target Country" is the result of rebranding of a chain formerly known as "Fosseys", and operates in country towns with smaller stores selling a subset of the range.
- Baby Target: as the name suggests, a seller of baby-related products.
- Woolworths company, whose supermarkets offer cut-price petrol as a sales incentive. In June 2003, Coles announced that it would take over the operation of Shell's domestic fuel retail outlets, thus giving it the ability to offer similar incentives.
The company also tried the Toys R Us format, opening several World 4 Kids stores in major cities. These failed, costing the company many millions of dollars. The World 4 Kids brand continues now as the toy department in K-mart stores.
