Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.

ATLANTA-The Home Depot is selling15 of its 54 Expo Design Center stores and converting five of them into its flagship-chain units. The retailer took a $106-million expense in anticipation of the closures during its Q1, which ended May 1.

The closings of the home furnishings stores "will improve the overall profitability of Expo operations," Bob Nardelli, Home Depot's president, CEO and chairman, said during a company conference call. The retailer started rolling out the Expo chain in the early 1990s.

During the quarter, Home Depot opened 21 stores, bringing its total to 1,911 in North America. Nine percent of the company's units are in Canada (120) and Mexico (45), and the rest are in the US. The company's same-store sales during its Q1 were up 2.1% year-over-year.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.