By Shelly Banjo
Home Depot Inc. named company veteran Craig Menear its new chief
executive Thursday, handing him the challenge of keeping sales
growing as the company shifts from building new U.S. stores to
investing online.
Mr. Menear, who will take the helm Nov. 1, will become the third
CEO to run the country's fourth largest retailer by revenue after
founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank retired. He takes over from
Frank Blake, 65 years old, who helped the company recover from a
difficult period of cost cutting under his predecessor, Bob
Nardelli, and steered it through the deep housing crisis.
Mr. Blake oversaw a major renovation effort at the
do-it-yourself chain in which he restored employee morale by
refocusing on service and moving workers out of the back rooms and
onto the sales floor. He also overhauled the supply-chain and
technology systems to make operations more efficient,
During his tenure, Home Depot's stock rose more than 100%.
Mr. Blake will remain chairman and Mr. Menear, 57 years old,
will join the board.
The fix-it chain, which took in $79 billion in revenue last
year, is in the midst of transforming its business as Americans
increasingly do their shopping online. To adapt, Home Depot is
selling everything from barbecue grills and patio sets to actual
bricks and mortar over the Internet, which now accounts for more
than 4% of its sales.
"We need to transform Home Depot to allow customers to shop
when, where and how they want to," Mr. Menear said in an April
interview at the company's Atlanta headquarters.
This year, the company plans $1.5 billion in capital
expenditures, "tilting investments more toward interconnected
retail and technology as we try to meet the needs of our changing
customers," Chief Financial Officer Carol Tome said in an interview
this week.
After decades of building dozens of stores a year, the company
has brought new store openings in the U.S. to a halt. It is also
reallocating store space to growing categories like appliances and
cleaning supplies.
Mr. Menear, a soft-spoken Michigan native, joined Home Depot in
1997 as a merchant in the chain's Southwest division and rose
through the ranks. More recently, he oversaw the company's
fast-growing online business, as well as the company's
merchandising, private-brand, global-sourcing and marketing
operations.
The appointment was part of a planned succession. Home Depot
began setting up the power transfer in February, naming Mr. Menear
as its U.S. retail president and putting him in charge of most
company operations, including its 2,000 U.S. stores.
At that time, the head of U.S. stores, Marvin Ellison, began
reporting to Mr. Menear instead of directly to Mr. Blake. The CEO
appointment settles the top job but raises questions about how long
Mr. Ellison and Ms. Tome, both well regarded executives who were
also considered possible successors to Mr. Blake, will remain with
the company.
A Home Depot spokesman declined to make any executives available
for comment.
Write to Shelly Banjo at shelly.banjo @wsj.com
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