MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Lowe’s Companies, Inc. announced the wind-down of certain underperforming store locations as part of its ongoing strategic reassessment. To focus on its most profitable stores and improve the overall health of its store portfolio, the company will:
- Close 20 U.S. stores. Most associates at these stores will be extended opportunities to transition to a similar role at a nearby Lowe’s store. The majority of impacted stores are located within 10 miles of another Lowe’s store.
- Close 31 Canadian stores and other locations.
“While decisions that impact our associates are never easy, the store closures are a necessary step in our strategic reassessment as we focus on building a stronger business,” said Marvin R. Ellison, Lowe’s (LOW) president and CEO. “We believe our people are the foundation of our business and essential to our future growth, and we are making every effort to transition impacted associates to nearby Lowe’s stores.”
Lowe’s expects to close the impacted stores by the end of the company’s 2018 fiscal year (Feb. 1, 2019). To facilitate an orderly wind-down, the company intends to conduct store closing sales for most of the impacted locations with the exception of select stores in the U.S., which will close immediately. Lowe’s has partnered with Hilco Merchant Services to help manage the process in the U.S. and ensure a seamless experience for customers.
The expected financial impact of the announcement of $0.28 to $0.34 per diluted share was not contemplated in the business outlook for fiscal 2018 which the company provided on Aug. 22 when it released its second quarter earnings. Additional details regarding the impact of the store closings will be provided in the next quarterly earnings release on Nov. 20.
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I like Lowes a lot and am there regularly. My experience with Lowes is that there are not enough people in the store to help or answer phones. There is also not much continuity in people from shift to shift. If they provided better customer service in regard to those areas it would surely help with the bottom line. Also, as a pro user they are painfully slow to responds to pricing because they have to go through corporate…too slow when I need the material now. Even if plan well I cannot always plan around lowes’ time frame. If they want to help ask the customers and be proactive. The managers/assistant managers at the store near us are very hands on and helpful. Maybe they need to decentralize a little? That’s my selfishly, personal take on it but I know there are lots of variables I don’t know affecting things.