Sales down, earnings up

In the first quarter of fiscal 2009 Home Depot recorded sales of US $ 16.175 bn, which is 9.7 per cent down on the same period last year. The drop came to 10.2 per cent altogether in like-for-like terms; the sales decline in the US stores amounted to 8.6 per cent. On the other hand, however, the company was able to improve its operating profit by 34.6 per cent to € 980 mio and, at US $ 514 mio, net sales were 44.4 per cent above last year’s figure. At the end of the quarter Home Depot had 2 238 stores in operation, 1 973 of which were Home Depots.