High comparable growth rate

Home Depot has ended the third quarter (to 2 November 2003) of the current financial year with the highest rate of growth on a comparable basis since 1999. The like-for-like increase over the same period last year amounted to 7.8 per cent. Overall the global market leader grew by 14.7 per cent to US $ 16.6 bn (€ 13.9 bn). The company acknowledges the crucial role played by new technology: at the end of the quarter there were already 760 stores with self-checkouts, where more than 40 mio of the group’s total of 313 mio transactions were completed. “Customer transactions through the self-checkouts are expected to exceed the figure of 100 mio in the first weeks of December, which will demonstrate the strong customer acceptance of this technology,” said Bob Nardelli, Chairman, President and CEO.