Home Depot grows again

The world market leader in DIY, Home Depot, posted sales of US $ 16.9 bn in the first quarter (ended 2 May 2010), 4.3 per cent higher than in the same period in the previous year. In like-for-like terms the increase was 4.8 per cent and 3.3 per cent for the stores in the USA. Excluding the sales lost due to the closure of the Expo network, sales rose by 5.7 per cent. At the end of the quarter, the company had 2 244 stores, comprising 1 976 Home Depot outlets in the USA, 179 in Canada, 79 in Mexico and ten in China. Sales are expected to increase by 3.5 per cent in the current fiscal year as a whole.