The story
Founded by Arthur Blank, Bernard Marcus, Kenneth Langone, Pat Farrah and Ron Brill on Feb 6, 1978, in Atlanta.1
1978–1999
The Home Depot was co-founded by Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, Pat Farrah, and Ken Langone in 1978. The Home Depot's proposition was to build home-improvement superstores, larger than any of its competitors' facilities. Investment banker Ken Langone helped Marcus and Blank to secure the necessary capital.
On June 22, 1979, the first two stores, built in spaces leased from J. C. Penney that were originally Treasure Island "hypermarket" (discount department and grocery) stores, opened in metro Atlanta (in Doraville and on Memorial Drive in Decatur, both near I-285). On September 22, 1981, The Home Depot went public on the NASDAQ, raising $4.093 million. The Home Depot joined the New York Stock Exchange on April 19, 1984.
The Home Depot began to branch out of Georgia to Florida in 1981 with stores opening in Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale. By 1984, The Home Depot was operating 19 stores with sales of over $256 million. To enter the Dallas market The Home Depot acquired Bowater Home Center from Bowater Inc. on October 31, 1984, for $40 million. The increased expansion of The Home Depot in the mid-1980s created financial difficulties with earnings falling by 42% and debt rising to $200 million. The financial difficulties of The Home Depot also caused the stock price to fall. Only 10 stores were opened in 1986, with a stock offering of 2.99 million shares at $17 per share. This helped the company restructure its debts.
In 1989, The Home Depot became the largest home improvement store in the United States, surpassing Lowe's. In the 1990s, The Home Depot searched for ways to redefine its marketplace. The EXPO Design Center subsidiary was launched in 1991 to provide high-end products and design services. A 480-page book, Home Improvement 1-2-3, was published in 1995.
The Canadian hardware chain Aikenhead's Hardware was acquired by The Home Depot in 1994 for $150 million with a 75% share. All of the Aikenhead's Hardware stores were later converted to The Home Depot stores. By 1995, sales reached $10 billion while operating 350 stores. Former General Electric executive Robert Nardelli became CEO and president of The Home Depot in 2000.
2000–2007
San Diego maintenance and repair supplies company Maintenance Warehouse was purchased by The Home Depot in 1997 for $245 million. Maintenance Warehouse was a leading direct-mail marketer of maintenance, repair and operations supplies that could reach customers out of reach by The Home Depot. Atlanta-based company Apex Supply was acquired by The Home Depot in 1999. Apex Supply is a wholesale distributor of plumbing, HVAC, industrial pipe and fittings. Apex Supply and Maintenance Warehouse stores were rebranded in 2004 as "The Home Depot Supply".
In 2004, Home Depot employees at a suburban Detroit store in Harper Woods, Michigan, rejected a bid to be represented by a labor union, voting 115 to 42 against joining the United Food and Commercial Workers. If the union had won, the Michigan store would have been the first Home Depot to have union representation.
Your Other Warehouse, a large plumbing distributor with a focus on special order fulfillment, was acquired by The Home Depot in 2001. Your Other Warehouse also supplied two divisions of The Home Depot and the EXPO Design Centers. The "EXPO Design Center" division was reorganized in 2001 with three divisions based in the Northeast at South Plainfield, New Jersey, the West at Orange, California, and the Southeast at Atlanta, Georgia.
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The Home Depot entered the Mexican market in 2002 with the acquisition of the home improvement chain Del Norte. In addition, The Home Depot had begun construction of stores in Mexicali and Tijuana. In the same year the Home Depot Landscape Supply was launched to integrate professional landscapers and upscale plants into a plant nursery retail chain. Home Depot Landscape Supply lasted only five years with only a few stores each in metro Atlanta and Dallas/Fort Worth. The Home Depot decided to close all Home Depot Landscape Supply stores in late 2007.
In September 2005, Home Depot Direct launched its online home-furnishings store, 10 Crescent Lane, shortly followed by the launch of "Paces Trading Company", its online lighting store. In mid-2006, the Home Depot acquired Home Decorators Collection, which was placed as an additional brand under its Home Depot Direct division.
In 2006, the Home Depot acquired Hughes Supply, the largest home construction wholesaler in the United States for $3.2 billion. Hughes Supply was integrated into The Home Depot Supply to better serve business-to-business customers. The Home Depot Supply rebranded under the new name HD Supply in January 2007. Five months later, The Home Depot sold HD Supply to a consortium of three private equity firms, The Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and Clayton, Dubilier and Rice (with each agreeing to buy a one-third stake in the division).
Since 2007
On January 2, 2007, The Home Depot and Robert Nardelli mutually agreed on Nardelli's resignation as CEO after a six-year tenure. Nardelli resigned amid complaints about his heavy-handed management and whether his pay package of $123.7 million (excluding stock option grants) over the previous five years was excessive, considering the stock's poor performance versus its competitor Lowe's. His severance package of $210 million was criticized because when the stock went down, his pay went up.
His successor, Frank Blake, previously served as the company's vice chairman of the board and executive vice president. Blake agreed to a much more conservative compensation package than Nardelli, which is very heavily dependent upon the success of the company. Although a longtime deputy to Nardelli at GE and Home Depot, Blake was said to lack Nardelli's hard edge and instead preferred to make decisions by consensus. Indeed, Blake repudiated many of his predecessor's strategies, and it has been reported that the two men have not spoken since Nardelli departed Home Depot.
In 2008 and 2009, with the downturn in the housing market, The Home Depot announced the layoff of several thousand associates, as well as the closing of 54 stores nationwide, including the entire EXPO Design Center chain. Associates at EXPO were allowed to re-apply for Home Depot jobs after the layoffs, and did not lose any tenure if hired back. In the year of February 2009, sales totaled $71.288 billion, more than $20 billion down from the peak of two years earlier due to the sale of HD Supply and falling revenue at the retained business. In 2012, it proceeded to close the big-box style stores that it had in China, however, smaller stores that specialized in custom products and that focused on more intimate interactions between customers and associates remain open there. In 2013, The Home Depot established two large distribution centers in Atlanta and Los Angeles.
In August 2014, it was announced that Frank Blake would step down as CEO and would be replaced by 57-year-old Craig Menear. The change occurred on November 1, 2014. Blake continued with the company as chairman. Menear joined The Home Depot in 1997 and served in various management and vice-presidential positions, until 2003, including merchandising vice president of hardware, merchandising vice president of the Southwest Division, and divisional merchandise manager of the Southwest Division. He subsequently served as senior vice president of merchandising from August 2003 to April 2007. He then served as an executive vice president of merchandising from April 2007 to February 2014. Until becoming CEO, Menear served as president of U.S. Retail from February 2014 to November 1, 2014.
The company had a data breach in September 2014. One major reason for the data breach was the practice of entering credit card numbers directly into computers at the service-desk and pro-desk, and in specialty departments including flooring, kitchen cabinets, appliances, and millwork, rather than using POS credit card terminals directly. The practice was stopped, and Home Depot offered a year of free credit monitoring through AllClearID for any customers who requested it. There were also reports of credit card numbers being stolen when used to make purchases on Homedepot.com.
On July 22, 2015, Home Depot announced it would acquire Interline Brands from P2 Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs' private equity arm, and the management of Interline Brands for $1.6 billion. On August 24, 2015, The Home Depot completed its acquisition of Interline Brands. By August 2016, the integration was progressing, with Interline's products being piloted in 20 Home Depot stores and its website merging with Home Depot's platform.
In 2017, Home Depot acquired the online presence of The Company Store from Hanover Direct. The Company Store was founded in 1911, operating primarily as a catalog and online sales operation, but with five physical locations. The five physical locations were not included in the deal. In December 2020, Home Depot bought back HD Supply for $8 billion. In January 2022, The Home Depot announced Craig Menear would be stepping down as the CEO and president effective March 1, 2022, while continuing to serve as the chairman of the board. He was replaced by former executive vice president Ted Decker.
In February 2023, Home Depot announced that it would spend $1 billion to raise hourly employee wages. On March 28, 2024 the company announced it would acquire SRS Distribution for $18.25 billion; SRS is based in McKinney, Texas. In turn, Home Depot agreed to buy Gypsum Management & Supply, Inc. (GMS) of Tucker, Georgia in late June 2025 for approximately $4.3 billion. The acquisition was finalized in September 2025. In March 2026, SRS Distribution acquired Mingledorff's Inc., a wholesale distributor of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment, parts and supplies, with 42 locations in five states across the Southeastern U.S. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
In March 2026, SRS Distribution, a subsidiary of Home Depot, agreed to acquire Mingledorff's Inc., a wholesale distributor of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment, parts and supplies, operating 42 locations across five southeastern states. The acquisition completed in May 2026, expanding SRS into the HVAC distribution market.
In July 2026, Home Depot announced an organizational realignment focused on expanding its professional-customer business. The company renamed its Office of integration as the Office of Pro Acceleration, led by chief financial officer Richard McPhail, to coordinate operations across Home Depot Pro, HD Supply, SRS Distribution, and Construction resources.
From Wikipedia’s article on Home Depot, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.9