The home improvement retail channel – home to Big Boxers like Home Depot and Lowe’s, as well as buying co-ops like Ace and True Value – is in the midst of some major changes that will impact the lighting and home décor business.
Even while the business of improving homes continues to be a good one and public retailers report impressive financial results, there are new developments across the board at two of the biggest players in the channel…which will no doubt result in reverberating aftershocks throughout the space.
At Lowe’s, the number two retailer in the do-it-yourself business, the search is on for a new CEO. Earlier this year long-time head honcho Robert Niblock announced he was retiring, a move that Wall Street generally saw as positive given the company’s widening gap with number one Home Depot.
And then just a few weeks ago, the company’s highly regarded executive director of its Innovation Labs internal unit Kyle Nel left the company too, to start his own firm.
Together, these moves signal a changing of the guard at Lowe’s, one that will no doubt also mean changes in the company’s merchandising strategy.
Over at True Value, there was big news too. The independent storeowners who also controlled the national buying and marketing organization overwhelmingly agreed to sell the company to a private equity group. The True Value stores remain individually owned but will now have a new controlling interest that could be aggressive in going after the top player in the space, Ace.
The two moves leave both market leaders – Ace and Depot – in comfortable positions, but obviously waiting to see what will happen. While Ace does not release financial results, the Depot numbers have been quite impressive as the company takes advantage of both the resurgence in the housing market and Lowe’s turmoil.
For the lighting business, the home improvement space – a key distribution channel for both portable and hard-wired products – remains one keeping a close eye on to see how it all plays out.