A selection of Kmart’s top-selling Anko products will be available at Target early next year.
The popular range, which was before now Kmart’s exclusive ‘home brand’, includes decor, storage and clothing products.
Wesfarmers, the parent company of Target and Kmart Australia, shared the news in its annual results report after it was announced the two stores would merge into one $10billion mega business.
The collection will include ‘hard home and general merchandise’ and will arrive in Target stores ‘early in the second half of the 2024 financial year’.
Anko, which stands for ‘A New Kind Of’, is well known among regular shoppers of Kmart, and ‘represents the change the retailer has undergone since 2008’.
In early 2024 popular Kmart Australia Anko products will launch in Target stores
The different categories made the products ‘clearly identifiable’ in the stores – ranging from homeware and children to clothing and fitness
Long before the label appeared on shelves across the country, the retailer offered an extensive range of items under multiple &Co brands such as ‘Home&Co’, ‘Kids&Co’, ‘Clothing&Co’ and ‘Active&Co’.
The different categories made the products ‘clearly identifiable’ in the stores – ranging from homeware and children to clothing and fitness.
In 2018, the discount chain quietly transformed ‘&Co’ to ‘Anko’ after replacing the letter ‘c’ with ‘k’ to ‘pay homage to where it all started – Kmart Australia’.
Wesfarmers also confirmed Target ‘remains profitable’ with ‘relatively stronger performance in apparel’. However, the trading of home and toys was deemed ‘challenging’ compared to clothing.
The introduction will include a range of ‘hard home and general merchandise’ launched into Target stores from ‘early in the second half of the 2024 financial year’ (stock image)
The business hopes to ‘leverage the scale of the Kmart Group’ to support Target in this area.
Brian Walker, CEO of retail consultancy Retail Doctor Group told news.com.au the phrase ‘hard home’ implies Anko-branded homewares will be sold at Target.
As a result, customers will be able to get the best of both stores all in one place.
Kmart Group’s trading performance is ‘strong’ as revenue increased 16.5 per cent to $10,635 million for the year.
It comes as Wesfarmers announced it will merge Target and Kmart stores to create a $10billion business aiming to offer better value to customers.
Ian Bailey, who became the managing director of Kmart Group in 2018, said the two stores will still operate as separate brands, with Kmart still being price-driven and Target mainly centred on affordable clothes and soft home furnishings.
He said the changes will be behind the scenes in areas such as technology and purchasing, and there would only be a ‘handful of redundancies’.
Mr Bailey expects the current cost-of-living crisis affecting Australians to last for a while longer.
‘I see value being really front and centre for a long time,’ he told the Australian Financial Review.
‘What we’re seeing is when we can consistently hit good products at great prices, then there’s plenty of demand out there.’
Despite some initial job losses, Mr Bailey expects the overall employment level to grow within 12 months from now.
‘I’d say we’re strong, but I think there’s an opportunity to really capitalise on this time and find ways to continue to deliver better value for customers,’ he said.
The merger has come about because running the two businesses separately made it difficult to improve the use of technology in Target.
‘This is really why we decided to push the two businesses into one,’ Mr Bailey said, adding that the merger is critical to improving sales.
‘This change enables us to push the same technology into Target because we will get to a point when we will have one technology stack.’
Mr Bailey, who has been credited in leading the turnaround in Kmart’s fortunes in recent years, said merging the two outlets into one $10billion entity will lead to significant cost savings and productivity improvement.
Ian Bailey (pictured), who became the MD of Kmart in 2018, said the two stores will still operate, with Kmart still being price-driven and Target mainly centred on affordable clothes and soft home furnishings
In 2020, 167 Target stores were either permanently closed or converted to Kmarts after the chain suffered a $67million slump in sales.
Target staff were offered jobs at Kmart or other Wesfarmers companies, including Bunnings and Officeworks.
The closures and conversions reportedly cost the company between $120million and $170million.
A further $140million was used for one-off store conversion and stock clearance costs.
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