The Home Depot

The Home Depot is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services. Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in the United States. In 2021, the company had 490,600 employees and more than $151 billion in revenue. The company is headquartered in incorporated Cobb County, Georgia, with an Atlanta mailing address.

It operates many big-box format stores across the United States (including the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands); all 10 provinces of Canada; and all 32 Mexican states and Mexico City. MRO company Interline Brands (now The Home Depot Pro) is also owned by The Home Depot, with 70 distribution centers across the United States.

History

1978–1999

The Home Depot was co-founded by Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, Pat Farrah, and Ken Langone in 1978.^[6][7][8] The Home Depot’s proposition was to build home-improvement superstores, 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^[9]

— Arthur Blank

The Home Depot Atlanta Store Support Center, 2018.

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 (in Doraville and on Memorial Drive in Decatur, both near I-285)^[10] on June 22, 1979.^[11][12] On September 22, 1981, The Home Depot went public on the NASDAQ and raised $4.093 million. The Home Depot joined the New York Stock Exchange on April 19, 1984.

The Home Depot began to branch out of Georgia to Florida in 1981 with stores opening in Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale. By 1984, The Home Depot was operating 19 stores with sales of over $256 million. To enter the Dallas market The Home Depot acquired Bowater Home Center from Bowater Inc. on October 31, 1984, for $40 million. The increased expansion of The Home Depot in the mid-1980s created financial difficulties with earnings falling by 42% and debt rising to $200 million. The financial difficulties of The Home Depot also caused the stock price to fall. To curb The Home Depot difficulties it opened only 10 stores in 1986 with a stock offering 2.99 million shares at $17 per share which helped The Home Depot to restructure its debts.

The Home Depot in Markham, Ontario, Canada

In 1989, The Home Depot became the largest home improvement store in the United States, surpassing Lowe’s. In the 1990s The Home Depot searched for ways to redefine its marketplace. An installation program for quality home improvement items, such as windows or carpets, was launched in 1991 called the EXPO with success. A 480-page book Home Improvement 1-2-3 was published in 1995. The Canadian hardware chain Aikenhead’s Hardware was acquired by The Home Depot in 1994 for $150 million with a 75% share. All of the Aikenhead’s Hardware stores were later converted to The Home Depot stores. By 1995, sales reached $10 billion while operating 350 stores.

Former General Electric executive Robert Nardelli became CEO and president of The Home Depot in 2000.

2000–2007

San Diego maintenance and repair supplies company Maintenance Warehouse was purchased by The Home Depot in 1997 for $245 million. Maintenance Warehouse was purchased because it was a leading direct-mail marketer of maintenance, repair and operations supplies that could reach customers out of reach by The Home Depot. Atlanta-based company Apex Supply was acquired by The Home Depot in 1999. Apex Supply is a wholesale distributor of plumbing, HVAC, industrial pipe and fittings. Apex Supply and Maintenance Warehouse were rebranded in 2004 as “The Home Depot Supply.”

In 2004, Home Depot employees 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.

Your Other Warehouse, a large plumbing distributor with a focus on special order fulfillment, was acquired by The Home Depot in 2001. Your Other Warehouse also supplied two divisions of The Home Depot and the EXPO Design Centers. The “EXPO Design Center” division was reorganized in 2001 with three divisions based in the Northeast at South Plainfield, New Jersey, the West at Orange, California, and the Southeast at Atlanta, Georgia.

The Home Depot entered the Mexican market in 2002 with the acquisition of the home improvement chain Del Norte. In addition, The Home Depot had begun construction of stores in Mexicali and Tijuana. In the same year the Home Depot Landscape Supply was launched to integrate professional landscapers and upscale plants into a plant nursery retail chain. Home Depot Landscape Supply lasted only five years with only a few stores each in metro Atlanta and Dallas/Fort Worth. The Home Depot decided to close all Home Depot Landscape Supply stores in late 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.

In 2006, the Home Depot acquired Hughes Supply the largest home retailer in the United States for $3.2 billion. Hughes Supply was integrated into The Home Depot Supply to better serve business-to-business customers. The Home Depot Supply rebranded under the new name HD Supply in January 2007.Five months later The Home Depot sold 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).

2007–present

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 about his heavy-handed management and whether his pay package of $123.7 million (excluding stock option grants) over the previous five years was excessive, considering the stock’s poor performance versus its competitor Lowe’s. His severance package of $210 million was criticized because when the stock went down, his pay went up.

Center aisle of a Home Depot store in 2014

His successor, Frank Blake, 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 Nardelli, which is very heavily dependent upon the success of the company. Although a longtime deputy to Nardelli at GE and Home Depot, Blake was said to lack Nardelli’s hard edge and instead preferred 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.

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. Associates at EXPO were allowed to re-apply for Home Depot jobs after the layoffs, and did not lose any tenure if hired back. In the year of 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. In 2012, they proceeded to close the big-box style stores that they had in China, however smaller stores that specialized in custom products and focused on more intimate interactions between customers and associates remain open there.

In 2013, The Home Depot established two large distribution centers in Atlanta and Los Angeles.

Interline Brands headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida

In August 2014, it was announced that Frank Blake would step down as CEO and would be replaced by 57-year-old Craig Menear. The change occurred on November 1, 2014. Blake would continue with the company as chairman. Menear joined The Home Depot in 1997, and served in various management and vice-presidential positions, until 2003, including merchandising vice president of hardware, merchandising vice president of the Southwest Division, and divisional merchandise manager of the Southwest Division. He subsequently served as senior vice president of merchandising from August 2003 to April 2007. He then served as an executive vice president of merchandising from April 2007 to February 2014. Until becoming CEO, Menear served as president of U.S. Retail from February 2014 to November 1, 2014.

The company had a data breach in September 2014.One major reason for the data breach was the practice of entering credit card numbers directly into computers at the service-desk and pro-desk, and in specialty departments including flooring, kitchen cabinets, appliances, and millwork, rather than using POS credit card terminals directly. The practice was stopped, and Home Depot offered a year of free credit monitoring through AllClearID for any customers who requested it. There were also reports of credit card numbers being stolen when used to make purchases on Homedepot.com.

On July 22, 2015, Home Depot acquired Interline Brands from P2 Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs’ private equity arm, and the management of Interline Brands for $1.6 billion. Interline Brands became fully integrated with The Home Depot in August 2016 with the Interline Brands website merging with The Home Depot website. The subsidiaries of Interline Brands are now companies of The Home Depot.

In 2017, Home Depot acquired the online presence of The Company Store from Hanover Direct. The Company Store was founded in 1911, operating primarily as catalog and online sales, but with five physical locations. The five physical locations were not included in the deal.

In January 2022, The Home Depot announced Craig Menear would be stepping down as the CEO and president effective March 1, 2022 while continuing to serve as the chairman of the board. He was replaced by former executive vice president Ted Decker.

Finances

As of 2020, Home Depot is ranked #26 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

For the Q2 of 2020, the company reported sales of $38.1 billion, which represented a growth of 23.4% from the same period, the previous year. The net earnings for the period of three months (ending August 2) rose 27% up to $4.3 billion. The growth in the sales was a result of Americans staying at home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Q3 for 2020, ending November 1, Home Depot reported a revenue of $33.5 billion; it represents a year-on-year increase of 24 per cent.

Carbon footprint

The Home Depot reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 1,821 Kt (-127 /-6.5% y-o-y).^[48] Reported emissions have been on a declining trend since 2016.