Report: Target to sell Zellers pharmacy scripts, start over when stores re-open

NEW YORK — Target is selling off the pharmacy business of the Zellers stores it bought as part of an effort to expand into Canada and start over, according to published reports.

Toronto-based newspaper The Globe & Mail reported that Target would sell Zellers' scripts to other retailers as it prepared to close the stores down for remodeling. The company plans to re-open them as Target stores, with pharmacies, in 2013. Industry observers value Zellers' pharmacy business at about C$500 million, according to the newspaper.

Target announced the C$1.83 billion (US$1.78 billion) purchase of up to 220 Zellers stores from the Hudson Bay Co. soon after announcing its 2011 U.S. expansion plans at the end of last year and said it planned to open 100 to 150 Target stores throughout Canada in 2013 and 2014.

In May, the company announced the selection of the first 105 stores that it planned to convert, and in June, it announced that it had selected Mississauga, Ontario, as the site of its Canadian headquarters.