Home Depot Sales Climb 10.5%
By Jeff Malester -- TWICE, 11/21/2005
Atlanta — The Home Depot reported a 10.5 percent fiscal third-quarter sales increase, climbing to $20.7 billion from a year-ago $18.8 billion, while comp-store sales rose 3.6 percent.
The home improvement retailer reported net earnings of $1.5 billion in the third quarter, ended Oct. 30, a 20 percent increase over the $1.3 billion recorded in the same three months last year.
“The execution of our strategy and the focus on our fundamentals has enabled us to consistently and predictably deliver strong results,” said Bob Nardelli, chairman/CEO.
By broadening its assortment and adding what it called “new, innovative and distinctive merchandise that provides tremendous customer value,” Home Depot was able to achieve a record average customer sales ticket of $58.92 in the third quarter, a 6.1 percent rise over the $55.53 reported in the same period the prior year.
Home Depot cited continued growth in core major appliance market share in the third quarter, which the company said increased by 1.3 percentage points, to 9.2 percent, on a rolling 12-month basis. Share statistics, which were reported by an independent third-party research company, according to Home Depot, were called the “highest yearly market-share gain in the industry.”
“We saw average ticket growth across the store, with real strength in kitchen and bath,” said Tom Taylor, merchandising and marketing executive VP. Taylor emphasized the addition of “innovative and distinctive products to our stores” during the quarter.
In the third quarter, Home Depot opened 37 new stores across the United States, Canada and Mexico, bringing total chain store count to 1,972 as of Oct. 30. In the fourth quarter, the retailer expects to open its 2,000 location, including its 50th unit in Mexico.
For the nine months, Home Depot sales increased 10.2 percent to $62 billion from a year-on-year $56.3 billion. Net earnings for the period jumped 15 percent, hitting $4.6 billion, compared with a year-earlier $4 billion.
Average customer sales ticket in the nine months rose 5.6 percent, reaching $58.21, up from $55.11 in the same period a year ago.
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