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Target Eyes Broader Grocery Marketing

Target Corp. is planning more market-wide promotions of its grocery offering as it builds density with its Pfresh remodels, the company said in a conference call with analysts discussing third-quarter results.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target Corp. here is planning more market-wide promotions of its grocery offering as it builds density with its Pfresh remodels, the company said Wednesday in a conference call with analysts discussing third-quarter results.

"As we add more and more stores, when we get market density we're able to market more broadly to the market rather than just geo-targeting the marketing around the stores that are opening," said Gregg Steinhafel, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Target Corp., noting that the company was "continuing to see good results" in the second year of the Pfresh rollout.

"So now that we have good density, you're going to see more broad marketing campaigns market by market."

The company remodeled 133 stores during the third quarter, which ended Oct. 29, leaving it with 875 total Target general-merchandise stores that have an expanded food offering, including fresh food.

"Three years ago, this format was only a concept we were testing in two Minnesota stores," Steinhafel noted. "And in a very short timeframe, it has become our core format, incorporating a more relevant assortment in a completely transformed environment that's visually compelling and easy to shop."

Target reported a 3.7% increase in net income for the third quarter, to $555 million, on a sales increase of 5.4% to $16.1 billion. Comp-store sales were up 4.3%. Through three quarters, Target said net income was up 3.4%, to $1.95 billion, on a sales gain of 4.4% to $47.53 billion.

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