The Home Depot

The Home Depot, Inc. (listed on the NYSE stock symbol: HD, ISIN US4370761029, WKN 866 953 ) is an American home improvement chain for hobbyists as well as professional craftsmen with headquarters in Atlanta.

The Home Depot today

The Home Depot operates more than 2,000 hardware stores (as of March 2006) in North America (USA, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico) and claims to be the largest home improvement retailer in the world. On average, every 48 hours opened a new market, in June and October 2005, there were, for example each about 20 per month. " The Home Depot " has 300,000 employees.

The Home Depot also has Edelbaumärkte and user stores, such as the EXPO Design Center, Landscape Supply Garden Center, and a number of specialized " The Home Depot " stores.

Company History

The company was founded in 1978 in Atlanta by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. They grew quickly and in 1986, sales rose to 1 billion U.S. dollars annually. In 2004, the turnover was 73.1 billion U.S. dollars.

In April 2006, the Company announced that it intends to more than double their activities on the Internet and catalog business through the acquisition of two companies in these sectors.

The financial crisis in the U.S. construction markets noted there that the money is not as flowing. For this reason, Home Depot closes at the moment 49 locations and releases about 7,000 employees; this is about two percent.

Company owner Blank purchased the Atlanta Falcons, a team from the National Football League in February 2002.

The Home Depot has by his own admission is still the goal to enter into the European market. However, this has been in spite of all this, run companies takeover attempts ( early 2004 Kingfisher ) or cooperation talks ( early 2000 with Bauhaus; recently is negotiating with a Scandinavian construction market group ) is not performed.