Home Depot To Close 15 Stores, Abandon Plans for 50 More

05/09/2008

ATLANTA -- Home Depot announced that it will close 15 underperforming U.S. stores, and is canceling plans to open 50 additional stores that have been in the pipeline. It will record a charge of approximately $400 million related to development costs and obligations associated with those future store locations.

"This is a continuation of our disciplined approach to capital allocation that we outlined last year. We will invest in our core retail business, in this case our existing stores, which drive our most profitable sales. Our capital efficiency model will also provide improved returns for our shareholders through dividends and share repurchases," said Frank Blake, chairman and CEO.

The company said the store closings will impact approximately 1,300 associates. The store managers and assistant store managers will be offered other store management positions within the organization. The Company will work to place the rest of the associates in other comparable store positions where available.

Home Depot said it still plans to open 55 new stores (36 in the U.S.) in the current fiscal year.