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Hoover's Company Profiles:

The Home Depot, Inc.

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(NYSE:HD)
Contact Information
The Home Depot, Inc.
2455 Paces Ferry Rd. NW
Atlanta, GA 30339-4024
GA Tel. 770-433-8211
Toll Free 800-466-3337
Fax 770-384-2356

Type: Public
On the web: http://www.homedepot.com
 Employees: 331,000
Employee growth: 3.1%

When embarking on household projects, many start their journey at The Home Depot. As the world's largest home improvement chain and fourth-largest US retailer, the company operates about 2,250 stores across North America, Puerto Rico, and China, as well as an e-commerce site. It targets the do-it-yourself and professional markets with its selection of some 40,000 items, including lumber, flooring, plumbing supplies, garden products, tools, paint, and appliances. Home Depot also offers installation services for carpeting, cabinetry, and other products. Stung by the deep recession and housing crisis in the US, the chain is beginning to regain its footing by focusing on its core Home Depot stores.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending January, 2012:
Sales: $70,395.0M
One year growth: 3.5%
Net income: $3,883.0M
Income growth: 16.3%

Officers:
Chairman and CEO: Francis S. (Frank) Blake
EVP Corporate Services and CFO: Carol B. Tomé
EVP and CIO: Matthew A. (Matt) Carey

Competitors:
Lowe's
Menard
True Value

Gale Directory of Company Histories:

The Home Depot, Inc.

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Incorporated: 1978
SIC: 5211 Lumber & Other Building Materials; 5251 Hardware Stores; 5231 Paint, Glass & Wallpaper Stores

The Home Depot, Inc. the largest home center retailer in the United States, operates 478 warehouse stores and sells more than 40,000 items to both the rapidly growing do-it-yourself home improvement market and construction professionals. The company's stores are located in 19 states, on the West Coast as well as in the southwestern, northeastern, and southeastern regions of the United States. California and Florida are the states containing the most Home Depot outlets, most of which are clustered around urban areas. A typical Home Depot warehouse--more than twice the industry norm at an average of 105,000 square feet--stocks building materials, wall and floor coverings, paint, plumbing supplies, hardware, tools, electrical supplies, and supplies for landscaping and gardening.

The company was incorporated in June 1978 as a result of a corporate management shake-up by new ownership of the Handy Dan home center chain. As a result of the managerial shuffle, Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank, and Ronald Brill found themselves out of work. With backing from a New York venture capital firm, Marcus and his two associates formed The Home Depot and opened the company's first outlets in the Atlanta, Georgia, area. The concept that had helped secure financing for the project was that when the price of merchandise was marked down, sales increased while the cost of making those sales decreased. The major problem that had plagued most cut-rate retail operations, however, was poor service at the operations level, which hired unskilled, low-paid employees to keep costs down.

Marcus and his partners realized that recognizing customers' needs was one of the most important elements in a company's growth. They were aware that at the time do-it-yourselfers made up more than 60 percent of the building supply industry's sales volume, but the majority of them did not have the technical knowledge or expertise to accomplish most home repair or improvement projects.

The Home Depot management team set about to solve this problem in two ways. First, they made sure that all Home Depot stores were large enough to stock at least 25,000 different items. Their competitor locations normally had room for only 10,000. The second solution was to train the sales staff in each store to help remove much of the mystery attached to home improvement projects from the minds of consumers. Marcus and his partners believed that, with the education provided by knowledgeable sales staffers, Home Depot customers would gain the confidence to take on more projects at home, coming back to Home Depot outlets to purchase what was needed and get additional advice from sales staff.

Home Depot built its sales staff from both dedicated do-it-yourselfers and professional tradespeople, hiring most employees in full-time capacities. Only 10 percent of Home Depot's sales personnel were part-time. Whenever possible, each store had a licensed plumber and electrician on staff, and customers were urged to call the Home Depot store in their area if they had any problem or questions while they were doing their home repair or improvement projects. The company also scheduled in-store instructional workshops for its customers and in some cases brought in local contractors as teachers.

This approach paid off. By 1984 the company was operating 19 stores and reported sales of $256 million, a 118 percent increase over 1983. In 1986 Home Depot's sales reached the $1 billion mark, and the company was operating 50 retail outlets.

The company's growth was not without its problems, however. In 1984 Home Depot paid $38.4 million for the nine-store Bowater warehouse chain, with outlets in Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama. The acquisition created immediate difficulties. Bowater's reputation with consumers was shoddy, and the merchandise in its stores did not match what Home Depot carried in its other outlets. In addition, Bowater's employees did not meet Home Depot's standards; Home Depot would eventually be forced to dismiss almost all of them.

During these years Home Depot's sales continued to climb, but for the first time in the company's history the cost of sales also increased. In 1985 the company's earnings fell 42 percent, and with the ever-increasing costs of opening new outlets--at that time it was more than $8 million per store--the company's long-term debt rose from $4 million to $200 million in just two years. By the end of 1985, the company's stock price had plummeted. It was clear that changes were needed if Home Depot was to continue to grow and prosper.

The company slowed down its expansion. In 1986 Home Depot only opened ten new stores, all in existing, established markets. A stock offering of 2.99 million shares at $17 per share helped reduce and restructure the company debt. Marcus also installed a computerized inventory control system and upgraded the company's management training programs. In keeping with Marcus's commitment to slower, more conservative growth, the company continued opening new stores to completely capture existing markets instead of striking out into new regions of the country.

By 1989 Home Depot had surpassed Lowe's Companies in sales, becoming the largest home-repair chain in the United States. By year's end almost all outlets were using the company's new satellite data communications network. The fast and accurate exchange of information now linking stores permitted continued growth by enhancing the company's responsiveness to market changes. The satellite also served as a foundation for the Home Depot television network, a system that produces and transmits live programming by top management to each outlet. The company's net earnings increased 46 percent in 1990, and Home Depot effected a three-for-two stock split that same year. Sales increased 38 percent over 1989. With the trend for continued growth in the do-it-yourself market shown by a 33 percent increase in the number of customer transactions logged by the company in 1990, along with an increase of 4 percent for the average customer sale, Home Depot seemed to be an emerging giant in the U.S. retail marketplace.

The company began the 1990s with the goal of doing more than $10 billion in sales from 350 locations by 1995. Part of this plan included a 75-store expansion into the northeastern United States, one of Home Depot's strongest markets despite the region's economic setbacks. Company officials believed the area's dense population and large number of older homes would generate impressive results. Expansion plans also included the state of Washington.

Despite the continued health of the home remodeling market, the company's stock flattened out in 1993, as the firm began to saturate its market. Along with superstores like Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot suffered from consumer reaction to the proliferation of large warehouse megastores. In reaction, the company began to search for ways to redefine its marketplace, as well as developing enhancements to its three-tiered "price, assortment, and service" strategies.

Throughout the 1990s Home Depot tested out several programs designed to determine where business could grow next. In 1991 it sampled customer interest in an installation program for items like carpets, doors, and windows. The program met with success and was adopted throughout Home Depot stores. A bridal registry was tested, as well as a drive-in lumberyard and a delivery service. Home Depot also established an environmental marketing department to help educate consumers about what product choices are more environmentally friendly. Over 70 hardware products--from light bulbs to paint--were identified for customers via in-store flyers and posters. Customer satisfaction again came under consideration in a program called S.P.I--store productivity improvement--in which cleaning, restocking, and other routine tasks are scheduled after store hours. In 1995 Home Depot opened its first 24-hour store and published a book on home repair, the 480-page Home Improvement 1-2-3, compiled with Better Homes and Gardens magazine publisher Meredith Corporation.

In addition to entering new U.S. markets, Home Depot began to examine other options. In 1994 the company spent $150 million on a 75 percent share of Aikenhead's Home Improvement Warehouse, a Canadian hardware chain. While Home Depot examined the possibility of expansion both north and south of the border, by the following year plans to open outlets in Mexico had been put on hold, and the number of planned Canadian openings had been reduced to 25 through 1996. Instead, the company added to the number of its EXPO Design Centers, bringing the total to five. Begun in 1991 and located throughout the U.S., these stores have captured the upscale interior design market and further expanded the company's sales base. In addition, efforts to court the commercial market also began to reap profits; overall, Home Depot net earnings achieved a 5-year compound growth rate of 35 percent over the first half of the 1990s.

In addition to its dual concerns of maintaining both the bottom line and customer satisfaction, Home Depot has continued to take a leadership role in many of the communities that its stores have entered. Under the leadership of Blank, who contends that corporate America has a responsibility to give back to the society within which it flourishes, Home Depot's Team Depot has become involved in humanitarian causes ranging from local welfare organizations to Habitat for Humanity and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada and the United States. In addition to encouraging the continuous volunteer efforts of its employees, the company also employed 1996 Olympic hopeful athletes, paying them competitive wages as part-time employees during their training for the Atlanta-based games, of which Home Depot was a corporate sponsor.

Although some forecasters continued to shed doubt upon the company's ability to maintain its phenomenal level of growth through the year 2000, company management has remained confident. By 3rd-quarter 1996 Home Depot had reported earnings of $221--up 26 percent from the previous year--and was ranked among the ten largest retailers in the United States. Despite the losses posted to competitors in the do-it-yourself retail market, Home Depot's 9 percent increase in same-store sales in 1996 showed that, within the $90 billion consumer home improvement market, orange had become the color of choice.

Further Reading

"The Home Depot," Management Horizons, July 1990.

"Home Depot and the Home Center Industry," Mid-Atlantic Journal of Business, December 1994.

"The 'How' in Home Improvement," New York Times, June 14, 1992.

"Shelter from the Recession," Time, June 10, 1991.

"Will Home Depot Be 'The Wal-Mart of the '9Os?"' Business Week, March 19, 1990.

Zemke, Ron, The Service Edge, New York: NAL Books, 1986.

— William R. Grossman; Updated by Pamela L. Shelton


Wikipedia on Answers.com:

The Home Depot

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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
The Home Depot, Inc.
Type Public
Traded as NYSE: HD
Dow Jones Industrial Average Component
S&P 500 Component
Industry Retailing
Founded Marietta, Georgia, United States (1978)
Headquarters Cobb County, Georgia, United States
Number of locations 3,248 (January 2011)[1]
Area served United States, Canada, Mexico, China
Key people Frank Blake
(Chairman and CEO)
Products Home appliances, tools, hardware, lumber, building materials, paint, plumbing, flooring, garden supplies & plants
Revenue increase US$ 67.997 billion (FY 2011)[1]
Operating income increase US$ 5.839 billion (FY 2011)[1]
Net income increase US$ 3.338 billion (FY 2011)[1]
Total assets decrease US$ 40.125 billion (FY 2011)[1]
Total equity decrease US$ 18.889 billion (FY 2011)[1]
Employees 321,000 (January 2011)[1]
Website HomeDepot.com
The Home Depot in Knightdale, North Carolina

The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services. The Home Depot operates many big-box format stores across the United States (including all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam), all ten provinces of Canada, Mexico and China. The Home Depot is headquartered at the Atlanta Store Support Center in Cobb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta.[2][3][4]

In terms of overall revenue reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, The Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in the United States, ahead of rival Lowe's. The store operates out of large warehouse style buildings averaging 105,000 ft² (9,755 m²) with megastores operating in larger facilities (the company's largest store, located in Union, New Jersey is 225,000 ft²).[5]

Contents

History

The Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, and Pat Farrah.[6] The Home Depot's proposition was to build home-improvement warehouses, larger than any of their competitors' facilities. Investment banker Ken Langone helped Marcus and Blank to secure the necessary capital.


“ "Bernie and I founded The Home Depot with a special vision -- to create a company that would keep alive the values that were important to us. Values like respect among all people, excellent customer service and giving back to communities and society."[7] ”

—Arthur Blank

In 1979, the first two stores, built in spaces leased from J. C. Penney that were originally Treasure Island "hypermarket" (discount department and grocery) stores, opened in metro Atlanta on June 21. Two more opened not long after, and all four shared the space under the "squiggly" zig-zag roof with Zayre on its right side. The first headquarters was on Terrell Mill Road on the southeast side of Marietta, Georgia, just down from one of the stores at the corner of Cobb Parkway. (That store 33°54′23″N 84°29′14″W / 33.9065°N 84.4872°W / 33.9065; -84.4872 (former location of The Home Depot's first store (Marietta Plaza, 1979)), in the Marietta Plaza strip mall, became Value City, changing to Burlington Coat Factory in 2008; part was also a short-lived Little Bucks, in which Brill had a stake.)

Since the 1990s, its current headquarters (33°51′54″N 84°28′55″W / 33.865°N 84.482°W / 33.865; -84.482 (The Home Depot, headquarters)) is a complex of high-rise buildings on Paces Ferry Road, on the western edge of the Cumberland/Galleria edge city in unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia, across Interstate 285 from the town of Vinings, and served by mail from Atlanta. The tallest is approximately 85 metres (279 ft) high, the fourth-tallest in the Vinings area.[8]

In 2000, after the retirement of Marcus and Blank, Robert Nardelli was appointed chairman, president, and CEO.

Nardelli resigned as Chairman CEO on January 3, 2007, amid controversy over his salary, the company's stagnating stock price, and poor customer service. He was succeeded by executive vice president and vice chairman Frank Blake. Although a longtime deputy to Nardelli at GE and Home Depot, Blake has been said to lack Nardelli's hard edge and instead prefers to make decisions by consensus. Indeed Blake repudiated many of his predecessor's strategies, and it has been reported that the two men have not spoken since Nardelli departed Home Depot.[9][10]

Nardelli had pushed hard to make the company more efficient, instituting many metrics and centralizing operations, while cutting jobs to meet quarterly earnings targets. While this initially doubled earnings and reduced expenses, it alienated many of the store managers and rank-and-file store associates, and by extension the customers. Nardelli, who regarded home improvement store-by-store sales as less important due to market saturation from competition such as Lowe's, aimed to dominate the wholesale housing-supply business though building up HD Supply, a unit that Blake sold for $8.5 billion in August 2007 since it was not part of Home Depot's integrated business. In comparison to Nardelli whose numbers-driven approach never appreciated the role of the store and its associates, Blake's strategy has revolved around reinvigorating the stores and its service culture (engaging employees, making products readily available and exciting to customers, improving the store environment, and dominating the professional contracting business, an area in which Home Depot's closest rivals trail far behind), as he recognized that employee morale is a more sensitive issue in retail compared to other industry sectors like manufacturing. [11]

In 2007 the Home Depot sold its $13 billion revenue wholesale (trade) division, HD Supply, to a consortium of three private equity firms, The Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and Clayton, Dubilier and Rice (with each agreeing to buy a one-third stake in the division). Home Depot sold their wholesale construction supply business to fund a stock repurchase estimated at $40 billion.[citation needed]

The Home Depot today

Map of Home Depot stores in the U.S., as of August 2011.
The Home Depot in Durham, North Carolina

Home Depot stores average 105,000 ft² (9,755 m²) in size and are organized warehouse-style, stocking a large range of supplies. Home Depot's largest store is located in Anaheim, California.[12] It is also the second and eighth largest employer in Signal Hill, CA.[13] The company color is a bright orange (PMS 165, CMYK 60M100Y), on signs, equipment and employee aprons.

Its 2005 sales totaled US$91.8 billion (US$77.0 billion in retail sales). Despite the 10% increase in revenue, it dropped three spots to #17 on the 2007 FORTUNE magazine's FORTUNE 500 list (it was #13 in 2005 and #14 in 2006). The Home Depot owned EXPO Design Center, a chain of home decorating and appliance stores, but closed the chain in 2009.[14] In 2006, the Home Depot acquired Hughes Supply which was assimilated into HD Supply serving contractors, which it sold in June 2007. In September 2005, Home Depot Direct launched its online home-furnishings store, 10 Crescent Lane, shortly followed by the launch of Paces Trading Company, its online lighting store. In mid 2006, the Home Depot acquired Home Decorators Collection which was placed as an additional brand under its Home Depot Direct Division. Home Depot Landscape Supply, with only a few stores each in metro Atlanta and Dallas/Fort Worth, was founded in 2002 and closed in late 2007.

On January 2, 2007, the Home Depot and Robert Nardelli mutually agreed on Nardelli's resignation as CEO after a six-year tenure. Nardelli resigned amid complaints over his heavy-handed management and whether his pay package of $123.7 million, excluding stock option grants, over the past 5 years was excessive considering the stock's poor performance versus its competitor Lowe's. His severance package of $210 million has been criticized because when the stock went down his pay went up.[10][15] His successor is Frank Blake, who previously served as the company's vice chairman of the board and executive vice president. Blake agreed to a much more conservative compensation package than his predecessor that is very heavily dependent upon the success of the company.

In 2008 and 2009, with the downturn in the housing market, The Home Depot announced the layoff of several thousand associates, as well as the closing of 54 stores nationwide, including the entire EXPO Design Center chain.[16][17] In the year to February 2009 sales totaled $71.288 billion, more than $20 billion down from the peak of two years earlier due to the sale of HD Supply and falling revenue at the retained business.

Board of directors

Current members of the board of directors of the Home Depot are: F. Duane Ackerman, David H. Batchelder, Frank Blake, Ari Bousbib, Gregory D. Brenneman, Albert P. Carey, Armando Codina, Bonnie G. Hill, and Karen Katen.[18] The Home Depot's board consists of 9 members, with 8 of them being independent directors.

Marketing

The slogan "More saving. More doing." was introduced by The Home Depot in the March 18, 2009 circular, replacing "You can do it. We can help." which had been used since 2003. Other slogans used in the past 25 years include "The Home Depot, Low prices are just the beginning" in the early 1990s and "When you're at the Home Depot, You'll feel right at home" in the late 1990s and "The Home Depot: First In Home Improvement!" from 1999-2003.

Online

The domain homedepot.com attracted at least 120 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey.[19]

Exclusive brands

The Home Depot exclusively carries several major brands, including:

* SharkBite Plumbing Solutions

Additionally, the retailer has its own house brands:

  • Husky (tools)
  • Workforce (tools,shelving, storage cabinets, extension cords, worklights, tarps, paintbrushes)
  • Glacier Bay (Kitchen sinks, faucets, etc)

Fuel centers

Starting in 2006, the Home Depot has started testing with fuel centers at some of its stores. The first such "Home Depot Fuel" convenience store (C-Store) was located in Brentwood, Tennessee followed a month later by a center about 20 miles (32 km) away in Hermitage, both suburbs of Nashville. Four additional prototype stores were built within the year at Acworth, Georgia; Smyrna, Tennessee ; Greensboro, Georgia; and then Winchester, Tennessee in that order. The centers are expected to earn $5–$7 million per year, though the actual number is reported to be much higher. The fuel centers sell beer, hot food, snacks along with providing diesel at a separate island. This allows contractors with large trucks to be able to fill their vehicles. The fuel centers offer car washes, which are large enough to accommodate full-size pickup trucks.[20]

Philanthropy

The Home Depot Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the company created in 2002. It has contributed over $200 million in time, labor, money, and supplies to a number of causes, including Habitat for Humanity, California-based City of Hope National Medical Center, and playground construction organization KaBOOM![21]

Home Depot has partnered with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency's Ready Georgia campaign, leading both supplies and facility use to this statewide effort to increase emergency preparedness among Georgia's children.[22] The company also provided ready kits and other prizes for an art and essay contest for Georgia elementary school students.[23]

In 2005, Home Depot was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.[24][25][26]

Environmental record

The Home Depot has stated on their website that they have a commitment "to the environment and pledge to continue to be an industry leader in looking for products and services that are respectful of our world."[27] The Home Depot introduced a label on nearly 3,000 products in 2007. The label promotes energy conservation, sustainable forestry and clean water. Home Depot executives said that as the world’s largest buyer of construction material, their company had the power to persuade thousands of suppliers, homebuilders and consumers to follow its lead on environment sustainability. “Who in the world has a chance to have a bigger impact on this sector than Home Depot?” said Ron Jarvis, who is the vice president for environmental innovation at Home Depot.[28] This program is following Home Depot’s promise in late 1990s to eliminate the number of sales of lumber from endangered forests in countries including Chile and Indonesia.[29] Home Depot has since worked with environmental groups to create a variety of green programs. For example, Home Depot planted thousands of trees at its headquarters in Atlanta to offset carbon emissions. In 2007, The Home Depot Foundation (the company's charitable foundation) committed to investing $100 million over the next decade to build over 100,000 green affordable homes and plant three million trees.

Additionally, The Home Depot promotes compact fluorescent light bulbs in their stores. As part of this effort, the company has created the largest recycling program in the United States for the bulbs.[30]

Barack Obama visited a Home Depot store in Arlington County, Virginia on December 15, 2009 to discuss how businesses and home owners can both benefit financially from energy efficiency home renovation projects. Obama supports home retrofitting projects that, he believes, will create jobs for construction workers many of whom were out of work due to down turn in the housing market, and will also decrease energy consumption.[31]

Major sponsorships

Since 1991, the company has become a large supporter of athletics, sponsoring the United States and Canadian Olympic teams, and launching a program which offered employment to athletes that accommodates their training and competition schedules. The Home Depot ceased to be a sponsor of the Canadian Olympic Team in 2005.

Company co-founder Blank also purchased the Atlanta Falcons franchise of the National Football League in February 2002. The Home Depot is also the primary sponsor of NASCAR Sprint Cup 2009 Rookie Of The Year Winner Joey Logano of Joe Gibbs Racing in a Toyota Camry. Before Joey, it was the sponsor of 3-time Cup Champion Tony Stewart since his rookie year; in 2009 Tony left Joe Gibbs Racing to own half of Stewart Haas Racing. The Home Depot is also the title sponsor of The Home Depot Center in Carson, California, home to both the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA of (Major League Soccer), and Los Angeles Riptide (Major League Lacrosse), and many past major sporting events.

In 2006, The Home Depot partnered with Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering to create "The Home Depot Smart Home." The smart home is a live-in laboratory for 10 upper-class engineering students that allows them to immerse themselves in the work. The goal of the project is to help provide innovative solutions for the home in areas such as security and home monitoring, communications, energy efficiency, entertainment, environment and health.[32]

In January 2007, the Home Depot became the official Home Improvement sponsor of ESPN's College Gameday.[33]

Seventy-three percent of the Home Depot's campaign contributions went to Republican candidates in the 2005-2006 US elections. "Home Depot's PAC gives money based on a candidate's voting record, committee assignment and leadership position," said company spokesman Jerry Shields.[34] The CEO in this period was Bob Nardelli, a friend of U.S. President George W. Bush.[35] Nardelli hosted a garden reception/fundraiser for Bush at his Atlanta home on May 20, 2004.[36]

The Home Depot internationally

Canada

Home Depot Canada is the Canadian unit of the Home Depot and one of Canada's top home improvement retailers. The Canadian operation consists of nearly 180 stores and employs over 35,000 people in Canada. Home Depot Canada has stores in all ten Canadian provinces and serves territorial Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Yukon through electronic means (Online sales).

The Canadian unit was created with the purchase of Aikenhead's Hardware. Home Depot management has an ambitious plan to overtake its biggest competitor, RONA, which has about four times as many stores. However, some of RONA's stores are smaller than the typical Home Depot store. In terms of big box stores, the Home Depot has more stores than RONA, (not including other Rona banners such as Réno Dépôt or Cashway). As of 2007, RONA pulled ahead of The Home Depot in total retail sales, due to aggressive consolidation efforts by RONA, combined with the loss of The Home Depot's industrial supply division, HD Supply, in July 2007. The Home Depot now faces competition from Lowe's as they have moved into the Canadian market effective the end of 2007; Lowe's now has 29 outlets in Canada.

The Home Depot banner in Quebec, where it has 22 stores, reads "Home Depot" without the definite article "the" in order to ensure a more cross-compatible proper name (that does not read like an English sentence) between both the French and English languages. However, Depot is still in English and not in French, which would be Dépôt.

Mexico

The Home Depot store in Mexico City, Mexico

The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, currently operates 91 stores in Mexico[37] and has become one of the largest retailers in Mexico since it entered the market in 2001. The Home Depot increased its presence in Mexico in 2004, with the acquisition of Home Mart, the second largest Mexican home improvement retailer.

The Home Depot Mexico employs more than 7,100 associates throughout the country and has an annual growth rate of 10 percent.[38]

China

In December 2006, the Home Depot announced its acquisition of the Chinese home improvement retailer The Home Way.[39] The acquisition gave the Home Depot an immediate presence in China, with 12 stores in six cities. Beginning of April, 2011, Home Depot recently shut its last Beijing store, the fifth Home Depot to close in China in the past two years.

United Kingdom

There have been reports that the Home Depot is interested in acquiring B&Q, the largest DIY retailer in the United Kingdom, Ireland and China. Speculation of a takeover began in 1999 when the retailer Asda was purchased by Wal-Mart. The Home Depot would have to acquire Kingfisher plc, B&Q's parent company, to acquire B&Q. Kingfisher consists of several European DIY chains, however the Home Depot is only interested in B&Q operations and says that it would dispose of the Castorama chain which operates in France, Italy, Poland and Russia. Several talks have not yet resulted in a takeover deal.[40][41][42][43]

South America

In 1997, Home Depot entered the Chilean and Argentine markets. While the venture was viewed with great optimism by founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank,[44] it eventually proved unprofitable. In October 2001, Chilean partners Falabella bought out Home Depot's share of the five Chilean Home Center stores and rebranded them Sodimac. The company has since expanded across South America very profitably and successfully. Argentina's Home Depots were bought out by Chilean company Hipermercados Jumbo and rebranded Easy stores, a company that has also expanded across South America.

Labor union policies

In 2004, Home Depot workers at a suburban Detroit store in Harper Woods, Michigan, rejected a bid to be represented by a labor union, voting 115 to 42 against joining the United Food and Commercial Workers. If the union had won, the Michigan store would have been the first Home Depot to have union representation.[45]

In October 2008 (although he no longer has anything to do with the company), co-founder Bernie Marcus called the Employee Free Choice Act "the demise of a civilization".[46]

Controversy

Whistleblower case

The Home Depot was embroiled in whistleblower litigation brought under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) law. In July 2005, former employee Michael Davis, represented by attorney Mark D. Schwartz filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Home Depot, alleging that his discharge was in retaliation for refusing to make unwarranted backcharges against vendors. Davis alleges that the Home Depot forced its employees to meet a set quota of backcharges to cover damaged or defective merchandise, forcing employees to make chargebacks to vendors for merchandise that was undamaged and not defective. The Home Depot alleges that it fired Davis for repeatedly failing to show up for work.

The trial initially was concluded in June 2006, but in April 2007, U.S. Department of Labor Judge Pamela Lakes Wood ordered the case reopened after the Home Depot's law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld revealed that the retail giant's in-house counsel had told them that two Home Depot employees who testified at the trial had lied. Akin Gump sent Wood a letter on September 29, 2006, in which the law firm requested that the testimony be stricken. In response to Akin Gump's revelation, Davis' attorney Mark D. Schwartz asked for the case to be reopened to permit further questioning of the witnesses. On April 6, 2007, Wood ordered the case to be reopened.

Schwartz was quoted by the New York Post as saying, "I have reason to believe these witnesses were intimidated into giving false testimony." The Home Depot called Schwartz's allegations "meritless."[47]

Home Depot has settled the dispute in a stipulation of settlement dated March 28, 2008. In the settlement, Home Depot changed some of its corporate governance provisions. Home Depot also agreed to pay the plaintiff's counsel $6 million in cash and $8.5 million in common stock.[48]

Support for LGBT causes

Home Depot has been the subject of an American Family Association-led boycott because it has sponsored gay pride festivals.[49] AFA director of special projects Randy Sharp said, "Home Depot should be like a lot of Fortune 500 companies and simply remain neutral in the culture war -- don't give money, don't give vehicles, don't lend employee support to homosexual activities on Main Street USA."[50]

The Human Rights Campaign thanked "a group of dedicated HRC Partners", including Home Depot, for providing the resources necessary to help pass the New York State gay marriage bill. The Home Depot says on its web site that they are "honored to say we support" HRC and other LGBT advocacy groups.[51]

Update - The Home Depot has tempered its language regarding "Pride Network" diversity. They now state "Pride Network’s mission and focus is to raise internal awareness and understanding of the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender customer segment and promote inclusion and respect for all associates." [51]

Tilt up construction design of stores

In the wake of the 2011 Joplin tornado in which the walls of a Home Depot collapsed in Joplin after being hit by an EF5 tornado, The Kansas City Star citing engineers criticized Home Depot's practice of using tilt up construction in hundreds of its big box stores (other nearby big box stores in Joplin including a Walmart and Academy Sports which had a different concrete block construction lost their roofs but the walls remained intact). In tilt up construction the concrete is poured on site and lifted into place and then attached to the roof. The engineers told the Star that the practice while normally safe and efficient is dangerous in major storms because once the roof is lifted (as happened in Joplin) the walls collapse in a domino effect. Seven people were killed in the front of the store when the 100,000 pound walls collapsed on them while 28 people in the back of the store survived when those walls collapsed outward. Only two of the slab walls in the Home Depot survived. In contrast 3 people died in the Walmart but 200 survived. Engineers noted that when concrete blocks construction fail, it breaks in pieces and usually not in huge slabs. Home Depot said it fundamentally disagreed with the Star engineers and said it would use tilt up construction when it rebuilds the Joplin store.[52]

References

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External links

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The Home Depot, Inc.
Corporate Directors:
Greg Brenneman · Richard H. Brown · John Clendenin · Claudio González · Milledge Hart · Bonnie Hill · Laban Jackson · Lawrence R. Johnston · Ken Langone · Tom Ridge
Annual Revenue: $66.2 billion USD (increase13% FY 2005) ·  · Employees: 325,000 · Stock Symbol: NYSE: HD · Website: homedepot.com
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