The Home Depot, Inc. is a large home improvement retailer, with a home office located at 2455 Paces Ferry Road, N. W. , Atlanta, Georgia 30339. Francis S. Blake currently serves as the CEO of the corporation, as he has since January of 2007. Their most recent fiscal year ended January 31, 2010. Being the world’s largest home improvement retailer and the fourth largest retailer in the United States , The Home Depot, Inc. sells a variety of raw building materials, home improvement, and lawn and garden products to both Do-It-Yourself and Commercial Customers.
In addition, for their Do-It-For-Me (“D-I-F-M”) customers, the retailer provides many home improvement services through independent contractors, who install many of the products available in the stores. The Home Depot is mainly located in the United States and other U. S. territories. However, several locations may also be found in Canada, Mexico and China. KMPG, LLP provided the independent audit of financial reports supplied by The Home Depot, Inc.
According to their review, the corporation maintained an accurate record of all accounting statements and represented the company’s financial position in a relevant and reliable manner in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB and COSO. While KMPG’s independent audit is an important review, verifying the accuracy and materiality of the financial statements, The Home Depot, Inc. ’s management is ultimately responsible for the produced report. Company Stocks are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol HD.
In the 2009, dividends were declared quarterly at $0. 22500 per share. As of the close of July 30, 2010 Home Depot’s market price was $28. 51 per share. Despite increasing dividends and a relatively stable share price, the home improvement retail industry continues to struggle due to the ongoing world wide economic difficulties. With the U. S. housing industry continuing to go into decline and unemployment rates continuing to rise, the home improvement retail market is taking a direct hit. With this in mind The Home Depot, Inc. nitiated strategies in the fiscal year 2008, to help minimize losses while maintaining a strong customer base. These measures included closing all specialty retail stores such as the EXPO Design Center, THD Design Center, Yardbirds, and HD Bath. By doing so Home Depot now is able to concentrate on the main business of its existing retail stores. Several facets of The Home Depot retail centers have changed as a result of this new focus. The continued concentrated efforts have resulted mainly in an ongoing transformation of The Home Depot’s supply chain process.
Through the use of Rapid Deployment Centers (RDC’S), available now to 65% of all U. S. retail centers, store inventory has decreased by almost half a billion dollars in 2009 while the in-stock rate increases. New RDC’s are planned to open in 2010 while the company closes its former traditional distribution centers. This streamlined supply chain process in conjunction with new information technologies, targeted at automatically replenishing diminished inventory, gets products to customers in a more timely manner while minimizing storage and transportation costs.
Customer service is also a main component to The Home Depot’s ongoing success. New employee hours and training through the company’s “Customer FIRST” program create a more convenient and pleasurable experience to help build a loyal consumer base. Partnerships with exclusive, well-known name brand suppliers also help to provide a wide variety of products for consumers at a lower every day prices. At a cost of approximately $22 million dollars, The Home Depot renovated various retail centers to provide a more energy efficient environment.
Additional projects are to be expected in the future to continue efforts to be more environmentally responsible. Although high in initial costs, these changes in culmination with earth friendly programs and products made available to consumers will continue to benefit the environment and reduce greenhouse emissions significantly for the foreseeable future. The company also made several strong financial moves retiring $1. 75 billion of senior notes and repurchasing approximately $200 million of outstanding shares.
