Home Depot

Type: Public (NYSE: HD)
Founded: 1978 (Atlanta, Georgia, USA)
Headquarters: Vinings, Georgia, USA
Key people: Frank Blake, CEO & Chairman
Industry: Retail (Home Improvement)
Products: Home improvement products such as appliances, tools, hardware,lumber, building materials, paint, plumbing, flooring and garden supplies & plants.
Website: www.homedepot.com

General Information

The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services.

Headquartered in Vinings, just outside Atlanta in unincorporated Cobb County, Georgia, Home Depot employs more than 355,000 people and operates 2,164 big-box format stores across the United States (including the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands), Canada (ten provinces), Mexico and China. Currently, the world's second largest Home Depot is in its final stages on the island of Guam.

The Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in the United States, ahead of rival Lowe's, and the second-largest general retailer in the United States, behind only Wal-Mart.

Changing an Industry

Using a unique business model Marcus had envisioned while still at Handy Dan, the company grew rapidly, with sales topping $1 billion annually by 1986. The Home Depot revolutionized the home-improvement industry by offering a wide selection of merchandise, low prices, and exemplary customer service to both the professional contractor and the do-it-yourself customer. Before the advent of Home Depot, small mom-and-pop stores, carrying a limited and specific selection of merchandise, dominated the industry and typically emphasized sales to the professional contractor. As a result, home-improvement projects often required driving to several stores to obtain the necessary materials. By contrast, the Home Depot stores offer a one-stop shopping warehouse. The average Home Depot store is approximately 130,000 square feet and is stocked from floor to ceiling with some 40,000-50,000 different products. An emphasis on size and volume allows the Home Depot to remain profitable by selling more for less. This, in turn, allows the Home Depot to negotiate lower prices from the merchandise vendors, with the savings passed on to the consumer.

Going International

In 1997, Home Depot expanded to Chile and Argentina with unexpected success during these countries' economic booms. But due to labor union influences in countries historically moved by economic socialism (unlike the highly capitalism-oriented economy in Mexico), Home Depot wanted to pull out and avoid conflict of interests with their governments. Home Depot remains active in South America despite the need to sell off 9 of its stores. In 2000, after the retirement of Marcus and Blank, Robert Nardelli was appointed chairman, president, and CEO. Nardelli was replaced in January 2007 by Frank Blake.