Conclusions Based on Analysis According to the annual reports from both Home Depot and Lowe’s, Home Depot held an advantage over Lowe’s in the big box home improvement retail industry. As of 2016, Home Depot operates 2,278 stores in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and Lowe’s operates 2,129 stores worldwide. The metrics collected to measure the financial performance of these two large scale competitors in the retail industry are very important to determine the overall success of the company. Key financial metrics to be considered for retailers include profit margin, inventory turns and sales per square foot. The profit margin that a company maintains is a very important measure of success and health of the company, it can be calculated …show more content…
According to Statista.com, Home Depot is the leader in both sales per square foot as well as sales per employee. These advantages in efficiency of operations have allowed Home Depot to also attain an advantage over Lowe’s in total net income per employee as well. A number of factors can contribute to Lowe’s being behind in these areas in comparison to Home Depot, those include too much or unnecessary square footage in each store, overstaffing and other general work inefficiencies. When looking at all of these factors, it can be determined that while both companies are growing profits and revenue steadily, Home Depot is doing it at a much more efficient …show more content…
Financially speaking, Home Depot has an advantage over Lowe’s in most of the applicable metrics. Lowe’s does possess low debt to equity ratio and is not highly debt leveraged so this gives the company the ability to improve and make strategic decisions based on the needs of their customers. Over the last three year average the companies are both growing at a similar rate in revenue and earnings. Both companies must make the correct strategic decisions in the coming years to adjust and maintain their position and grow their advantages over the competition over time while minimizing their own
However with few exceptions, The Home Depot outperforms Lowe’s considerably. Lowe’s did outperform The Home Depot in revenue growth this most recent quarter, but this is just a snapshot when in reality both The Home Depot and Lowe’s have been experiencing very similar growth for years. Next is Earnings/Share, The Home Depot is earns over two times more than Lowe’s for one dollar of share price. Key differences can be found in profit margins, debt vs equity, and return on equity. The Home Depot has a considerably higher profit margin when compared to the margin of Lowe’s, and is much better at turning invested capital into equity.
Annual Reports and Press releases The annual reports and press releases of both companies slightly differ though with a portion of similarity. Although, Home Depot’s annual report is composed at the headquarters of giving an inclusive report on all of the retail stores in the world, through the company’s website these reports posted can be found. Therefore, this being impartial and all-inclusive to an extent of analysis it would have to be done on the contrasts, similarities, profitability, and performance of different retail stores in different regions or countries. However, the shareholders and customers analyze the summary provided to know the general performance.
I think the Home Depot is a stronger than Lowe’s, because the Home Depot is number one-largest hardware chain and Lowe’s is second-largest hardware chain in U.S. and Globally. They both have about the same number of store, but The Home depot is more profitable than Lowe’s. If you compare a Home depot revenue, operating income and free cash flow Lowe’s only generates about half of a what home depot is generating. That’s because Home depot leans more toward the professional contractor – who buy higher value items and Lowe’s leans more toward the homeowner. The Home Deport current Ratio is 1.32 and Lowe’s 1.0 that means that Home Depot has 1.32 to cover there $1.00 liabilities, and Lowe’s has 1.0 cover $1.00 liabilities.
For my final marketing plan I chose Lowes Home Improvement. I chose Lowes because I have worked there for almost two years and I feel that I know a great deal about the company and the things that it needs, because of my experience on the sales floor. A little history about Lowes, Lowes started as a small town hardware store opened by James Lowe in nineteen forty six. He started this business as a small community hardware store that focused on small things that people around the community needed like wash tubs and horse collars and other small miscellaneous things. James Lowe’s brother in law decided he wanted to take the company in a different direction.
Some of them include B of A ML, Barclays Capital, Deutsche BK SEC, Jeffery & Co, Baird R W, etc. Currently the trading volume is $4,210,775 (Lowe 's Companies, Inc. (LOW) Stock Chart). Lowe’s is very socially responsible. According to Robert A. Niblock, it means that they are accountable to customers, to their people, and to their communities they serve. He also states that it means that they aim high to do what is right, to find a solution that works for all of them, and to strive to be trustworthy.
Sears’ profit margin has been bouncing from high to low for the past ten years. An interesting point though is their profit margin was barely affected during the recession in 2008. If anything the recession was a better time for Sears. They were focused on “recession-friendly” advertising and with their layaway programs were able to still be selling higher priced products. They took advantage of the recession by challenging their external partners to deliver more for less.
The last product that this company produces are the flow controllers. Flow controllers are products that are very customizable but are not as competitive on the market demanding higher prices. The planned gross margin for the flow controllers was 35% with an actual margin of 41.%. There was a significant increase without the loss of any business. The Wilkerson company have a quality leadership team; however, there are some things that needs to be changed for the company to succeed and prepare for potential price
Both Lowe’s and Home Depot have close relationships with their suppliers. As a result, suppliers are often time discouraged from doing business with competing firms – which is a weakness to the supply chain, and hinders business developments and limits one’s market strategies. Home Depot faces the threat of substitutes as a result general merchandiser i.e., Walmart and online retailers availability of home improvement products. Given the fact that the vast majority of Home Depot’s revenues are generated in the American market, the slowdown of the U.S. economy extends a major threat.
Companies all over the globe will experience some sales and profit decrease. Home Depot in the growing housing industry benefited greatly from the houses being built. The accounting concept portrayed in this situation for home depot is called operating leverage. Operation leverage is when managers view a small change in revenue and magnify it to dramatic changes in revenue (Edmonds, Tsay, & Olds, 2011). With a decrease in the market for construction materials, Home Depot is experiencing a 3% decrease revenue and a 21% decrease in profitability.
Home Depot is a multi-million dollar industry, with over 2,000 stores around the world. They supply contractors with tools and products to build a house or supply Do-It-Yourselfers with home and business improvements. But with all the good Home Depot has done, they have their faults too. Home Depot has faced job cuts, ethical violations and the mistreatment of their customers. When a person hears job cuts, they assume that the reason for the job cuts is downsizing.
Since 2015, the company operates nearly 2,000 stores just within the U.S making up 87% of their locations in the world, with the remaining 13% split between Canada and Mexico (post 2012 China pull-out) (MarketLine, 2016). Most of their products are catered to DIY or Do-It-Yourself customers, who favor high customization and individuality when designing home projects (Gao, 2013). A SWOT analysis performed by Market Line shows just how these characteristics, as well as domestic and foreign environments, mold their overall strategy. The pertinent information from this report reveals the reasoning for Home Depot’s success in the U.S., such as the external opportunities: a growing home improvement market, and a rising immigrant population (MarketLine, 2016). It also reveals, the associated weakness: an overdependence on the U.S market, which explains why in the late 2000s Home Depot began expanding outside of North America (MarketLine, 2016).
Article #1 The article I picked was “the Home Depot marketing strategy is paying off” which was posted in a business blog by Mandy at mod girl marketing http://www.modgirlmarketing.com/home-depots-marketing-strategy-paying/ , Mandy is an author and blogger at 8 ways in 8 days and also the founder of mod girl marketing. She is also a driven digital marketing consultant, has a newly released eBook that shows you eight proven ways to generate quality leads in 2015. The blog http://www.modgirlmarketing.com/home-depots-marketing-strategy-paying/ is about how The Home Depot is moving up ahead in their sales surpassing Lowes. Home depot’s store sales 5.8% beating their 4.5% estimate in sales while Lowes only saw a 4.4% increase.
Specifically, Ralph’s (similar stores are Vons and Albertson’s) and Whole Foods (similar stores are Gelson’s and Trader Joes) are two firms that utilize cost leadership and differentiation. On one hand, we have Ralph’s using cost differentiation by providing a broad range of merchandise at a decent price. On the other hand, we have Whole Foods that has implemented a differentiation strategy by marketing their merchandise as healthier (organic). The trade of for both companies is that they are attracting less consumers by just marketing to a specific crowed. For instance, if Whole Foods had lowered their price and still sold premium merchandise, soon Ralph’s would be in trouble.
JB Hi-Fi Limited (JBH) 1. Macro economic factors and Industry Analysis a. Describe the firms economic environment and evaluate how this has impacted historic firm performance and is likely relevant to future performance. b. Perform an industry analysis and evaluate the level of competition in the industry/ies that your firm operates 2. Business Strategy Analysis Identify the key success factors and risks of the firm 's strategy and the sustainability of profits generated by the strategy given the threat of competition.
Amazon is number one in competing Walmart especially in online retailer and now opining fiscal stores starting with Amazon Campus store in 2015, available at several college campuses in US the Amazon Campus stores serve as a central hub where student retrieve deliveries from lockers and drop off returns, all free of charge. Over the past three years, while Walmart’s sales grew by 8.6 %, revenue at Amazon has nearly doubled. Then, Costco is also major competitor to Walmart, particularly to Sam’s because of its low price.