Home Depot Swot Analysis Paper

The Business

Home Depot, founded in 1978 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is the world’s largest home improvement retailer, with over 300,000 employees and annual sales of nearly $80 billion. Serving both the do-it-yourself and professional contractor markets, the company maintains a network of roughly 2,260 big-box stores in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico that sell a wide assortment of building materials, home improvement products, and lawn and garden products. It also provides numerous services to do-it-for-me customers, installing everything from carpeting, flooring, and cabinets to roofing, windows, and central air systems.

Strengths

Excellent Execution: This prevented Home Depot from falling off a cliff during financial crisis and

corporate history, a feat largely achieved because of its strategic product alliances with industry-leading manufacturers. Indeed, these alliances have enabled the company to deliver exclusive, innovative assortments to do-it-yourselfers and professional contractors alike, with a combination of national brands and propriety products, such as Ryobi tools, RIDGID tools, BEHR paint, LG appliances, and Toro and Cub Cadet lawn

Among these are measures to improve merchandise execution, order management, and space optimization, along with efforts to drive more inventory and supply chain efficiencies.

Threats

Rising Interest/Mortgage Rates: This could have a chilling effect on consumer spending and the overall housing recovery. That said, we expect borrowing costs to stay historically low even as the economy strengthens and the Federal Reserve winds down its accommodative bond-buying program. And home buying should remain an attractive option for many consumers, particularly with rental prices soaring in many American cities.

Bad Weather: In any given year, cold and stormy weather can wreak havoc on customer counts and depress key same-store sales trends. The January interim, usually the company’s weakest quarter from a revenue standpoint, is the one most likely to be hampered by weather-related headwinds.