What About Home Depot Fuel?

If Expo is on the way out, can Home Depot’s fledgling convenience stores be far behind?

Home Depot’s (HD) decision to close its 11 Landscape Supply stores will allow the home improvement retailers to further increase its focus on its core warehouse stores – a positive development in the view of Deborah Weinswig, a Retailing/Broadlines, Food & Drug, and Home Improvement analyst with Citi Investment Research, New York.

“We believe the Landscape stores were a lower return format, and the resources previously applied to these stores will generate better returns if applied to HD’s core home improvement stores,” she wrote.

The Atlanta-based retailer decided to close its 11 Landscape Supply stores, including five in metro Atlanta and six in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  Home Depot launched the Landscape Supply format in 2002.  “It is a small standalone chain that targets hard-core gardeners, and includes a greenhouse area and a large outdoor space geared toward shrubs and trees,” she said. The stores are expected to close by November 19.

Expo Design stores could be next to go. Home Depot “continues to streamline its formats, first with the sale of THDS (The Home Depot Supply aimed at builders) business and now with the closure of the Landscape Supply stores.  The upscale Expo Design Center format could be the next to go, as the company focuses on improving its core home improvement format.”

If Expo is on the way out, can Home Depot’s fledgling convenience stores be far behind? The retailer has only opened a handful in the last two years, and recently the head of the division left the company. Why are they holding on to Home Depot Fuel?