Growth for Home Depot again

Home Depot’s sales experienced growth again in 2010 – “the first time since 2006”, in the words of chairman and CEO Frank Blake. The global market leader reports sales in the recently completed fiscal year (to 30 January 2011) of US $ 67.997 bn, or 2.8 per cent up on the year before. The increase in like-for-like terms came to 2.9 per cent for the group overall, and 2.5 per cent in the USA. Net income rose by 25.4 per cent to US $ 3.338 bn. The rate of growth in the fourth quarter, with a sales volume of US $ 15.1 bn, came to 3.8 per cent on the same period one year previously. Like-for-like growth amounted to 3.9 per cent overall, and to 4.8 per cent in the outlets belonging to the home market in the USA. The company is reckoning on growth of 2.5 per cent for the current fiscal year, during which ten new stores are to be opened. It currently has 2 248 outlets in operation altogether: 1 976 Home Depot stores in the USA, 179 in Canada, 85 in Mexico and eight in China.