Loyalty Marketing

Target’s credit card portfolio is looking a whole lot more attractive to potential acquirers following improvements in the delinquency rates, risk profile and strong profit growth.

Fourth-quarter operating profit in the credit card segment increased 287% to $151 million compared with $39 million in the fourth quarter the prior year. For the full year, credit card segment profits advanced 169% to $541 million compared with $201 million the prior year.

The solid fourth-quarter financial results Target reported last week were quickly overshadowed by long-term growth objectives that gave stakeholders a clear idea of where the company is headed in terms of sales and profits. Target expects its annual sales, currently about $66 billion, to reach the $100 billion mark within six to seven years, and current earnings per share of $4 will at least double over that same time frame.

SALISBURY, N.C. — Food Lion announced Friday that it would add more of its MVP savings center kiosks to help customers save on their grocery bills.

MVP savings center kiosks, which are part of Food Lion's MVP customer loyalty card program, were introduced in stores last year. Since their introduction, kiosk coupons have up to five times the redemption rate when compared with coupons delivered via traditional distribution channels, Food Lion said.

Money-saving coupon kiosks also can be found at Bloom and at Harveys.

New York City -- Target Corp. said its annual sales may top $100 billion within the next seven years, with revenue boosted by its first expansion outside the United States, Bloomberg reported.

The chain also may double earnings per share over that period, CFO Douglas Scovanner said Thursday on a conference call after fourth-quarter results. Net income in the period ended Jan. 29 rose 11% to $1.04 billion.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart said it will present more than $1.5 million to nonprofits in six U.S. communities, thanks to Facebook users' help with the retailer's commitment to fight hunger through 2015.

Walmart's Fighting Hunger Together campaign called on Facebook users to go to Walmart.com/fighthunger and "like" one of the 100 hungriest communities in the United States, as ranked by the Food Research and Action Center. More than 10 million votes were cast during the campaign, which ran from Nov. 15 through Dec. 31.

Sears Holdings named Lou D’Ambrosio its new CEO in conjunction with the release of fourth-quarter results that sales and profits decline, as a 2.5% same-store sales increase at Kmart was not enough to offset a 4.5% comp decline at Sear’s flagship stores.

Minneapolis -- Target Corp. reported Thursday that net income for the quarter ended Jan. 29 rose 11% to $1.04 billion, helped by improved revenues and fewer write-offs of bad credit-card debt.

Retail sales increased 2.8% in the fourth quarter to $20.3 billion, from $19.7 billion in the year ago period. Same-store sales rose 2.4%. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast $20.76 billion in revenue.

Fourth quarter earnings per share at Target advanced 17% to $1.45 compared with $1.24 the prior year, thanks to a seven-cent-a-share tax benefit, and quarterly profits were slightly more than $1 billion compared with $936 million the prior year. Fourth-quarter sales increased 2.8% to $20.3 billion compared with $19.7 billion the prior year and were aided by a 2.4% increase in same-store sales.