Target Corp. swung the ax again this week at its Minneapolis headquarters, eliminating 140 positions after cutting 550 jobs in February and 1,700 in March.
“As a part of our ongoing transformation efforts, we are continuing to roll out a comprehensive corporate restructuring across our headquarters locations,” a Target spokeswoman said. “For example, as a part of that restructuring, we have brought together teams in centers of excellence, working to reduce complexity across our organization while streamlining our work. As a part of this…we informed approximately 140 headquarters-based team members that their positions had been eliminated. In addition, we also closed 50 open positions at our U.S. headquarters locations.”
Target’s chairman and chief executive officer Brian Cornell has pointed to centers of excellence as a means of breaking down silos and speeding decision-making.
The Target spokeswoman said affected team members will receive comprehensive separation packages comparable to the separation packages other team members have received this year.
Target’s first round of 550 layoffs was associated with the closure of its 133 Canadian stores. At Target’s investor conference on March 3, Cornell said the company planned to cut about $2 billion in costs over the next two years. Included in the cuts would be “several-thousand” positions, he said. Two weeks later, Target told 1,700 employees that their positions were being eliminated.
The mass market retailer isn’t the only one reducing payrolls.
Gap Inc. said this week it would cut about 250 jobs at its San Francisco headquarters and close 140 of its namesake doors this year.
And J. Crew last week said the jobs of 175 employees were eliminated, representing between 12 and 13 percent of the total workforce at the New York City headquarters.