Industry News

Monday, February 1, 2010

HOME DEPOT LAYING OFF 1,000 EMPLOYEES

ATLANTA—Home Depot Inc. is laying off about 1,000 employees company wide, according to an internal memo.

“We are restructuring select support functions to better align with our business needs and we are exiting three underperforming pilots,” Home Depot CEO Frank Blake said in a memo obtained by Reuters. “It is never good news to announce layoffs. The personal hardship that this will cause for many of our associates makes this a very difficult decision. But it is the right and necessary decision for our business, our associates as a whole, and for our shareholders,” Blake said.

Home Depot is not cutting jobs because of poor financial performance, Blake told employees.

“I want to reiterate that this is not a case of the company cutting expenses in reaction to broader economic pressures or our business performance,” he wrote. “Rather, we are making prudent structural changes where it makes business sense to consolidate some functions.”

The changes follow Home Depot’s decision to move to a centralized human resources structure, Blake said. The company is also cutting costs in its real estate and construction functions because it is not building as many new stores.

It has no plans to close stores except for three pilot project locations, Blake said. The pilots include a smaller store with a more limited selection of products in Wilson, N.C.; a temporary hurricane recovery outlet in Waveland, Miss.; and a clearance outlet in Austell, Ga.