“Pro sales are once again outpacing DIY sales this quarter.”
Home Depot's Chairman, CEO and President Craig Menear announced a record-setting second quarter earnings report, and along with it came news of a big jump in sales to the professional contractor. “We are focused on being a valued partner for our Pros by offering solutions both in-store and at the job site,” Menear added.
Menear and Executive Vice-President of Merchandising, Ted Decker, pointed out the Pro customer at Home Depot took advantage of the electrical products Home Depot offers, along with its recent partnership with Interline to engage more Pros. “Well, certainly our building material categories did very well. Our electrical did very well, tools, consumers, consumers love our power tools,” Decker announced.
“Our deeper level of engagement with the Interline customers has helped to drive sales growth that outpaced the company average in the quarter,” Menear added. “And we remain very excited about the MRO opportunity going forward.” In fact, the Interline partnership has created another opportunity for Home Depot: fast delivery.
“We have 1500 stores that have access to Interline's products next day and an additional 458 stores that are a two-day delivery,” Bill Lennie, Executive Vice-President of Outside Sales added. “And we're seeing great activity on a broad base of goods [that are] primarily servicing the trades from plumbing, electrical, hardware … also strengthen[ing] the HVAC business. So it's doing a nice job of extending our product reach, giv[ing] us access to deeper inventories for Pros that are coming in and looking for project-based purchases. And then, overall, average ticket on par; ramping up sequentially week-over-week; and pleased with progress on the MRO business.”
Home Depot also admitted that during a conference call on earnings one year ago, it expected to see Pro customer sales either stay flat or decline. CFO and Executive Vice-President of Corporate Service Carol Tome says that is not the case. “I can recall talking last August about our sales, our Pros going out on vacation. Well, based on what we're seeing in the stores today our Pros are not on vacation. The stores are busy and our sales are quite good.”
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