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May/June 2007 Page 5
The Home Depot Names
President for China Retail
Operations
A t l a n t a , G a . a n d S h a n g h a i ,
C h i n a —The Home Depot ® the
world’s largest home improvement
retailer, recently announced the
appointment of Yves Chen as president
of The Home Depot’s retail operations
in China. He will report directly
to Annette Verschuren, president, The
Home Depot
Asia and
Canada.
Yves Chen
brings 19
years of
global retail
and management
experience
to his new
role. Most
recently, he
served as the executive president of
the Beijing Hualian Group, a leading
Chinese retailer. Prior to that, he held
a variety of executive positions in
China and France with Carrefour ® and
Promodes ® , two leading French retailers.
Yves holds a bachelor’s degree
from the Beijing Chemical
Engineering Institute, as well as a
master’s degree from Ecole Nationale
Superieure des Industries Chimiques
and a Ph.D. from Institut National
Polytechnique de Lorraine, both universities
in Nancy, France.
The Home Depot announced its
acquisition of Home Way on Dec. 13,
2006. The transaction received the
necessary Chinese government regulatory
approvals and closed on Dec.
15. As a result of the acquisition, the
company now employs approximately
3,000 associates across 12 stores in
six cities in China, including Tianjin,
Beijing, Xi’an, Qingdao, Shenyang
and Zhengzhou.
The Home Depot ® is the world’s
largest home improvement specialty
retailer, with 2,159 retail stores in all
50 states, the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, 10
Canadian provinces, Mexico and
China. Through its HD Supply businesses,
The Home Depot is also one
of the largest diversified wholesale
distributors in the United States, with
nearly 1,000 locations in the United
States and Canada offering products
and services for building, improving
and maintaining homes, businesses
and municipal infrastructures. In fiscal
2005, The Home Depot had sales of
$81.5 billion and earnings of $5.8 billion.
•
Orchard Supply Goes Green
San Jose, Calif.—Orchard Supply
Hardware (OSH), the 85-store home
improvement and gardening chain
with locations throughout California, is
expanding its efforts to help the environment.
Following last month’s launch of an
“Earth Friendly” logo, designed to
draw attention to green products in its
stores, the San Jose-based chain is
making several changes to its distribution
center.
Changes include the re-lamping of
the Tracy, Calif.-based distribution
center with energy efficient lights; the
ordering of eight new “green” tractors
to replace aging an inefficient equipment
in the fleet; and the recycling of
an extensive amount of packaging
material and plastic from the distribution
center, vendors and store returns.
“Our efforts toward environmentallyfriendly
products and initiatives, both
in our stores as well as at an operational
level, reflect our desire to be a
good corporate citizen while at the
RETAIL REVIEW
same time meeting the needs of our
customers,” said OSH vice president
of supply chain Mike Racer. “We have
seen some real progress in this area
as a company and will continue to
look for ways to incorporate earthfriendly
initiatives in both our product
offerings and operations.”
OSH has been involved in other
efforts to help the environment, including
partnering with a number of
California counties to offer environmental
education and customer programs,
fluorescent bulb and rechargeable
battery recycling, product
rebates and pollution-reduction education.
OSH is also a statewide partner
of Our Water, Our World, which is
a consortium of water quality protection
agencies.
In addition to appearing in customer
communications, the Earth Friendly
logo is being used on shelf signage in
departments, such as garden, nursery,
electrical, plumbing, hardware,
outdoor power, appliances and
housewares.
•
Lowe’s Opens New Stores
Buckeye, Ariz.—Employees of the
new, have been busy recently stocking
more than 40,000 items to successfully
open the new store by the
end of April.
The new superstore has 116,000
square feet of retail sales space, with
an adjacent garden center, stocking
40,000 different items to help customers
build, improve and beautify
their homes. A store of this size represents
an average investment for the
company of $18.5 million and creates
up to 175 new jobs.
Lowe’s also recently opened new
locations similar in size to the
Buckeye property in Wilmington,
Delware, Palm Coast, Fla., Milton,
Fla., Brampton, Ont., Gilbert, Ariz.,
Apopka, Fla. and Flemington, N.J.
Additionally, Lowe’s Cos. expects
new store openings this winter in
Show Low, Ariz., and early next year
in N. Visalia, Calif. The company
hopes to anchor a 275,000-squarefoot
commercial center planned for a
former landfill in Anaheim, Calif.
Lowe’s new distribution center in
Lebanon, Ore., is due to begin receiving
products in May. Shipping to the
new distribution center is due to begin
in June.
•
Ace Records Banner Year
Oak B rook, Ill.—Ace Hardware
Corp. recently announced banner
sales after netting $105.5 million in
2006, up 5.1 percent from 2005.
According to Ace’s records, domestic
revenue was up 6.2 percent and the
chain opened 188 new stores in the
United States, or the equivalent of one
every 48 hours. The opening of a new
80,000-square-foot retail support center
and distribution warehouse in
Moxee, Wash., fueled sales in the
Pacific Northwest region of the country.
Also, international revenue rose 13.3
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