Hefty increase for Home Depot

Home Depot, the biggest home improvement chain in the world, recorded sales of USD 78.812 bn in the 2013/2014 fiscal year (to 2 February 2014), which exceeded the previous year’s figure by 5.4 per cent. The sales increase comes to 7.2 per cent if the 53rd week allocated to the preceding fiscal year is left out of the calculation. The like-for-like rate of increase amounted to 6.8 per cent overall and 7.5 per cent in the USA. Chairman and CEO Frank Blake spoke of the strongest same-store growth in 14 years, partly as a result of the recovering housing market. Net income increased by 18.7 per cent to USD 5.385 bn. Home Depot concluded the fourth quarter with sale of USD 17.696 bn. The fact that this volume remained 3.0 per cent below the corresponding figure for the preceding year resulted from the extra week added to that fiscal year. An increase of 3.9 per cent would have been achieved without this effect. At the end of the quarter the company had 2 263 DIY stores in operation. Seven more stores are to be added during the current fiscal year.