Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is a U.S.-based chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores. Founded in 1946 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, the chain now serves more than 14 million customers a week in its 1,710 stores in the United States and 20 in Canada. Expansion into Canada began in 2007, with the opening of a store in Hamilton, Ontario, in early 2008. Lowe's started the construction of two stores in the Mexican city of Monterrey officially entering the Mexican market.[3] In 2011, Lowe's released plans to build over 150 stores in Australia over the coming 5 years, hoping to compete with the AUD$46 billion industry. Lowe's Companies, Inc. is 43 on the Fortune 500[4] list. As of 2010, the chain is based in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, near Winston Salem, North Carolina. Lowe's is the second-largest hardware chain[5] in the U.S. behind The Home Depot and ahead of Menards. Globally, Lowe's is also the second-largest hardware chain, again behind The Home Depot and ahead of the European stores B&Q and OBI.
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (Lowe’s), incorporated in 1952, is a home improvement retailer. As of January 29, 2010, the Company operated 1,710 stores, consisted of 1,694 stores across 50 United States states and 16 stores in Canada. Its 1,710 stores represent approximately 193 million square feet of retail selling space. The Company serves homeowners, renters and commercial business customers. Homeowners and renters primarily consist of do-it-yourself (DIY) customers and do-it-for-me (DIFM) customers who utilize its installed sales programs, as well as others buying for personal and family use. Commercial business customers include those who work in the construction, repair/remodel, commercial and residential property management, or business maintenance professions. During the fiscal year ended January 29, 2010 (fiscal 2009), it opened 62 stores, including five Canadian stores. Its store openings include three primary prototypes: 117,000-square-foot (117K) and 103,000-square-foot (103K) stores for large markets and a 94,000-square-foot (94K) store to serve smaller markets.
The Company offers a line of products for home decorating, maintenance, repair, remodeling and property maintenance. It offers home improvement products in the categories, which include appliances, paint, lumber, flooring, building materials, millwork, lawn and landscape products, hardware, fashion plumbing, tools, lighting, seasonal living, rough plumbing, nursery, outdoor power equipment, cabinets and countertops, rough electrical, home environment, home organization, and windows and walls. Lowe's store stocks approximately 40,000 items, with hundreds of thousands of items available through its special order sales system and Lowes.com. The Company’s special order sales product offerings provide its customers to select a range of product options through electronic product catalogs and Lowes.com. Each Lowe’s store carries a selection of national brand name merchandise, such as Whirlpool, Stainmaster, Valspar and Pella.
The Company offers installation services through independent contractors in many of its product categories, with flooring, millwork and cabinets and countertops. It offers a credit card for retail customers. In addition, it offers a Lowe’s Project Card in all stores. It also offers credit programs for commercial business customers. It also offers the Lowe’s Business Rewards Card from American Express, which is a business credit card with a rewards program that enables business owners to earn points on virtually all card purchases.
By the late 1980s the retail scene in the United States had once again been transformed, and the era of the "big-box" warehouses had begun. Home Depot Inc. led the way in the home improvement sector and its aggressive expansion of its 105,000-square-foot home-improvement superstores quickly moved the upstart past Lowe's and other competitors into the number one position. Lowe's, meanwhile, had surpassed the 300-store mark in fiscal 1989 but those stores averaged barely more than 20,000 square feet. The company had opened some larger units in 1988--including a 60,000-square-foot store in Knoxville, Tennessee, a 40,320-square-foot unit in Boone, North Carolina, and a 60,480-square-foot store in North Chattanooga, Tennessee--but none approached the size of a Home Depot. Lowe's also made some adjustments to its products lines as core consumer goods areas--hardware, tools, paint, plumbing, home decor, and stereo equipment--were expanded, while such fringe items as exercise equipment, bicycles, and bath linens that had crept in over the previous decade were phased out.
Beginning in 1989 Lowe's began a formal shift from being a chain of small stores to being a chain of large, warehouse-style stores, with the company fully committing itself to this change in 1991. During that year, the company took a $71.3 million restructuring charge in order to accelerate the chain conversion. The charge covered the costs of closing, relocating, and remodeling about half of the company's stores, during the period from 1991 to 1995. Over the course of the four-year restructuring, the size of the new or remodeled stores crept upward from 45,000 square feet to 85,000 to 115,000. The largest size was to be reserved for Lowe's stores built in larger markets, such as Greensboro, North Carolina, while in the smaller markets the company traditionally served Lowe's eventually aimed to build 100,000-square-foot units. All of the larger stores featured huge garden centers, as big as 30,000 square feet in size. Overall, Lowe's aimed to generate more of its sales from consumers, while at the same time continuing to serve contractors. And it also continued to sell major appliances and home electronics (including home office equipment, which was added to the mix in 1994), two categories usually absent from Home Depot stores.
From 1991 to 1993, the company concentrated almost exclusively on the restructuring and made only modest expansion moves, gaining toeholds in Maryland, Indiana, and Illinois for the first time. Although the chain added only five stores overall during this period, total square footage increased from 8.02 million in 1991 to 14.17 million in 1993, translating into an increase from 26,000 in average square footage to 45,500. In 1994 and 1995 Lowe's added 54 more stores, bringing the total to 365, and adding the states of Iowa, Michigan, and Oklahoma to its territory. Also in 1995, the company began to aggressively expand in Texas, going from two stores in 1994 to 23 stores in 1996. Lowe's also expanded into the state of New York in 1996 and into Kansas in 1997. Meanwhile, in August 1995 Herring retired and was succeeded as president and CEO by Robert L. Tillman, who had served as chief operating officer.
By 1996 there were more than 400 Lowe's stores, averaging more than 75,000 square feet per unit. Sales had nearly tripled since the restructuring was announced in 1991, increasing from $3.1 billion to $8.6 billion. Net earnings reached a record $292.2 million in 1996. With more than 70 percent of its stores now "big boxes," Lowe's began to concentrate more on expanding into new territory in the mid-1990s, aiming to reach the 600-store mark by century-end (about 40 stores were to be added during 1997 alone). During the final years of the 1990s, the company planned to spend 80 percent of its capital expenditures on building new stores, some of which were planned for large metropolitan areas, such as Atlanta's--territory traditionally shunned by the chain. It was clear that Lowe's, which had thus far managed to thrive--not just survive--in the cutthroat home improvement world of the 1990s, was determined to bolster its number two position and to cut into Home Depot's lead.
Principal Subsidiaries: Lowe's Home Centers, Inc.; The Contractor Yard, Inc.; Sterling Advertising, Ltd.; LF Corporation; LG Sourcing, Inc.; Lowe's Home Centres (Canada), Inc.
OVERALL
Beta: 1.00
Market Cap (Mil.): $33,959.93
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 1,318.32
Annual Dividend: 0.44
Yield (%): 1.71
FINANCIALS
LOW Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 18.23 15.03 18.17
EPS (TTM): 16.92 -- --
ROI: 7.70 6.10 1.56
ROE: 10.72 8.53 2.40
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1952 as Lowe's North Wilkesboro Hardware, Inc.
Employees: 53,492
Sales: $8.6 billion (1996)
Stock Exchanges: New York Pacific London
SICs: 5211 Lumber & Other Building Materials Dealers; 5251 Hardware Stores; 5261 Retail Nurseries, Lawn & Garden Supply Stores; 5719 Miscellaneous Homefurnishing Stores; 5722 Household Appliance Stores; 5731 Radio, Television & Consumer Electronic Stores
Name Age Since Current Position
Niblock, Robert 48 2006 Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
Stone, Larry 59 2006 President, Chief Operating Officer
Hull, Robert 46 2004 Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President
Brown, Michael 47 2011 Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer
Keener, Gaither 61 2011 Executive Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer, General Counsel, Secretary
Ausura, Maureen 55 2011 Executive Vice President - Human Resources
Bridgeford, Gregory 56 2004 Executive Vice President - Business Development
Damron, Ricky 48 2011 Executive Vice President - Store Operations
Mabry, Joseph 48 2004 Executive Vice President - Logistics and Distribution
Gfeller, Robert 49 2011 Executive Vice President - Merchandising
Hollifield, Matthew 44 2005 Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer
Croom, Marshall 50 2009 Senior Vice President, Chief Risk Officer
Woods, Todd 43 2009 Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Assistant Secretary
Saura, Janet 46 2010 Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Assistant Secretary
Peace, N. Brian 45 2006 Senior Vice President - Corporate Affairs
Robinson, William 2011 Senior Vice President - Customer Support Services
Maltsbarger, Richard 2011 Senior Vice President - Strategy
Dally, Troy 2011 Senior Vice President
Allen, William 2011 Senior Vice President - Logistics
Dayton, Everett 2011 Senior Vice President - IT Business Management
Bernauer, David 67 2010 Lead Independent Director
Lochridge, Richard 67 1998 Independent Director
Browning, Peter 69 1998 Independent Director
Berry, Leonard 68 1998 Independent Director
Hudson, Dawn 53 2001 Independent Director
Ingram, Robert 68 2001 Independent Director
Page, Stephen 71 2003 Independent Director
Sloan, O. Temple 72 2010 Independent Director
Larsen, Marshall 62 2004 Independent Director
Johnson, Robert 65 2005 Independent Director
Alvarez, Raul 55 2010 Independent Director
Address:
Post Office Box 1111
North Wilkesboro, North Carolina 28656
U.S.A.
Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (Lowe’s), incorporated in 1952, is a home improvement retailer. As of January 29, 2010, the Company operated 1,710 stores, consisted of 1,694 stores across 50 United States states and 16 stores in Canada. Its 1,710 stores represent approximately 193 million square feet of retail selling space. The Company serves homeowners, renters and commercial business customers. Homeowners and renters primarily consist of do-it-yourself (DIY) customers and do-it-for-me (DIFM) customers who utilize its installed sales programs, as well as others buying for personal and family use. Commercial business customers include those who work in the construction, repair/remodel, commercial and residential property management, or business maintenance professions. During the fiscal year ended January 29, 2010 (fiscal 2009), it opened 62 stores, including five Canadian stores. Its store openings include three primary prototypes: 117,000-square-foot (117K) and 103,000-square-foot (103K) stores for large markets and a 94,000-square-foot (94K) store to serve smaller markets.
The Company offers a line of products for home decorating, maintenance, repair, remodeling and property maintenance. It offers home improvement products in the categories, which include appliances, paint, lumber, flooring, building materials, millwork, lawn and landscape products, hardware, fashion plumbing, tools, lighting, seasonal living, rough plumbing, nursery, outdoor power equipment, cabinets and countertops, rough electrical, home environment, home organization, and windows and walls. Lowe's store stocks approximately 40,000 items, with hundreds of thousands of items available through its special order sales system and Lowes.com. The Company’s special order sales product offerings provide its customers to select a range of product options through electronic product catalogs and Lowes.com. Each Lowe’s store carries a selection of national brand name merchandise, such as Whirlpool, Stainmaster, Valspar and Pella.
The Company offers installation services through independent contractors in many of its product categories, with flooring, millwork and cabinets and countertops. It offers a credit card for retail customers. In addition, it offers a Lowe’s Project Card in all stores. It also offers credit programs for commercial business customers. It also offers the Lowe’s Business Rewards Card from American Express, which is a business credit card with a rewards program that enables business owners to earn points on virtually all card purchases.
By the late 1980s the retail scene in the United States had once again been transformed, and the era of the "big-box" warehouses had begun. Home Depot Inc. led the way in the home improvement sector and its aggressive expansion of its 105,000-square-foot home-improvement superstores quickly moved the upstart past Lowe's and other competitors into the number one position. Lowe's, meanwhile, had surpassed the 300-store mark in fiscal 1989 but those stores averaged barely more than 20,000 square feet. The company had opened some larger units in 1988--including a 60,000-square-foot store in Knoxville, Tennessee, a 40,320-square-foot unit in Boone, North Carolina, and a 60,480-square-foot store in North Chattanooga, Tennessee--but none approached the size of a Home Depot. Lowe's also made some adjustments to its products lines as core consumer goods areas--hardware, tools, paint, plumbing, home decor, and stereo equipment--were expanded, while such fringe items as exercise equipment, bicycles, and bath linens that had crept in over the previous decade were phased out.
Beginning in 1989 Lowe's began a formal shift from being a chain of small stores to being a chain of large, warehouse-style stores, with the company fully committing itself to this change in 1991. During that year, the company took a $71.3 million restructuring charge in order to accelerate the chain conversion. The charge covered the costs of closing, relocating, and remodeling about half of the company's stores, during the period from 1991 to 1995. Over the course of the four-year restructuring, the size of the new or remodeled stores crept upward from 45,000 square feet to 85,000 to 115,000. The largest size was to be reserved for Lowe's stores built in larger markets, such as Greensboro, North Carolina, while in the smaller markets the company traditionally served Lowe's eventually aimed to build 100,000-square-foot units. All of the larger stores featured huge garden centers, as big as 30,000 square feet in size. Overall, Lowe's aimed to generate more of its sales from consumers, while at the same time continuing to serve contractors. And it also continued to sell major appliances and home electronics (including home office equipment, which was added to the mix in 1994), two categories usually absent from Home Depot stores.
From 1991 to 1993, the company concentrated almost exclusively on the restructuring and made only modest expansion moves, gaining toeholds in Maryland, Indiana, and Illinois for the first time. Although the chain added only five stores overall during this period, total square footage increased from 8.02 million in 1991 to 14.17 million in 1993, translating into an increase from 26,000 in average square footage to 45,500. In 1994 and 1995 Lowe's added 54 more stores, bringing the total to 365, and adding the states of Iowa, Michigan, and Oklahoma to its territory. Also in 1995, the company began to aggressively expand in Texas, going from two stores in 1994 to 23 stores in 1996. Lowe's also expanded into the state of New York in 1996 and into Kansas in 1997. Meanwhile, in August 1995 Herring retired and was succeeded as president and CEO by Robert L. Tillman, who had served as chief operating officer.
By 1996 there were more than 400 Lowe's stores, averaging more than 75,000 square feet per unit. Sales had nearly tripled since the restructuring was announced in 1991, increasing from $3.1 billion to $8.6 billion. Net earnings reached a record $292.2 million in 1996. With more than 70 percent of its stores now "big boxes," Lowe's began to concentrate more on expanding into new territory in the mid-1990s, aiming to reach the 600-store mark by century-end (about 40 stores were to be added during 1997 alone). During the final years of the 1990s, the company planned to spend 80 percent of its capital expenditures on building new stores, some of which were planned for large metropolitan areas, such as Atlanta's--territory traditionally shunned by the chain. It was clear that Lowe's, which had thus far managed to thrive--not just survive--in the cutthroat home improvement world of the 1990s, was determined to bolster its number two position and to cut into Home Depot's lead.
Principal Subsidiaries: Lowe's Home Centers, Inc.; The Contractor Yard, Inc.; Sterling Advertising, Ltd.; LF Corporation; LG Sourcing, Inc.; Lowe's Home Centres (Canada), Inc.
OVERALL
Beta: 1.00
Market Cap (Mil.): $33,959.93
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 1,318.32
Annual Dividend: 0.44
Yield (%): 1.71
FINANCIALS
LOW Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 18.23 15.03 18.17
EPS (TTM): 16.92 -- --
ROI: 7.70 6.10 1.56
ROE: 10.72 8.53 2.40
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1952 as Lowe's North Wilkesboro Hardware, Inc.
Employees: 53,492
Sales: $8.6 billion (1996)
Stock Exchanges: New York Pacific London
SICs: 5211 Lumber & Other Building Materials Dealers; 5251 Hardware Stores; 5261 Retail Nurseries, Lawn & Garden Supply Stores; 5719 Miscellaneous Homefurnishing Stores; 5722 Household Appliance Stores; 5731 Radio, Television & Consumer Electronic Stores
Name Age Since Current Position
Niblock, Robert 48 2006 Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
Stone, Larry 59 2006 President, Chief Operating Officer
Hull, Robert 46 2004 Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President
Brown, Michael 47 2011 Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer
Keener, Gaither 61 2011 Executive Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer, General Counsel, Secretary
Ausura, Maureen 55 2011 Executive Vice President - Human Resources
Bridgeford, Gregory 56 2004 Executive Vice President - Business Development
Damron, Ricky 48 2011 Executive Vice President - Store Operations
Mabry, Joseph 48 2004 Executive Vice President - Logistics and Distribution
Gfeller, Robert 49 2011 Executive Vice President - Merchandising
Hollifield, Matthew 44 2005 Senior Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer
Croom, Marshall 50 2009 Senior Vice President, Chief Risk Officer
Woods, Todd 43 2009 Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Assistant Secretary
Saura, Janet 46 2010 Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel, Assistant Secretary
Peace, N. Brian 45 2006 Senior Vice President - Corporate Affairs
Robinson, William 2011 Senior Vice President - Customer Support Services
Maltsbarger, Richard 2011 Senior Vice President - Strategy
Dally, Troy 2011 Senior Vice President
Allen, William 2011 Senior Vice President - Logistics
Dayton, Everett 2011 Senior Vice President - IT Business Management
Bernauer, David 67 2010 Lead Independent Director
Lochridge, Richard 67 1998 Independent Director
Browning, Peter 69 1998 Independent Director
Berry, Leonard 68 1998 Independent Director
Hudson, Dawn 53 2001 Independent Director
Ingram, Robert 68 2001 Independent Director
Page, Stephen 71 2003 Independent Director
Sloan, O. Temple 72 2010 Independent Director
Larsen, Marshall 62 2004 Independent Director
Johnson, Robert 65 2005 Independent Director
Alvarez, Raul 55 2010 Independent Director
Address:
Post Office Box 1111
North Wilkesboro, North Carolina 28656
U.S.A.