Lowe's Companies, Inc. is an American retail company specializing in home improvement.[3] Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States. As of October 28, 2022, Lowe's and its related businesses operated 2,181 home improvement and hardware stores in North America.[4]
Lowe's is the second-largest hardware chain in the United States (previously the largest in the U.S. until surpassed by Home Depot in 1989) behind rival the Home Depot and ahead of Menards.[5] It is also the second-largest hardware chain in the world, also behind the Home Depot, but ahead of European retailers Leroy Merlin, B&Q, and OBI.[6]
The company previously operated in Australia through the Masters Home Improvement joint venture until 2016, in Mexico until 2019, and in Canada until selling its operations (which will be consolidated under the Rona brand) to Sycamore Partners in 2023.
History
The first Lowe's store, Mr. L.S. Lowe's North Wilkesboro Hardware, opened in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in 1921 by Lucius Smith Lowe.[7] After Lowe died in 1940, the business was inherited by his daughter, Ruth Buchan, who sold the company to her brother, James Lowe, for $4,200,[8] that same year. James took on his brother-in-law H. Carl Buchan as a partner in 1943.[9]
Buchan anticipated the dramatic increase in construction after World War II, and under his management, the store focused on hardware and building materials.[10] Before then, the product mix had also included notions, dry goods, horse tack, snuff, produce, and groceries. Buchan and Lowe started the concept of procuring large quantities of products directly from manufacturers, which eliminated the wholesaler and allowed them to offer customers lower prices.[11]
Finances
In 2020, for the May–July yearly quarter, the company reported sales of $27.3 billion; in 2019, for the same period, the firm had reported sales of $21 billion. The digital sales for the same period also were up to 135%. The sales surges were a result of consumers switching their buying habits as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[26]
Seventy five percent of the company's revenue comes from do it yourself consumers.[31]
Historical data
For the fiscal year 2019 (2/1/2019-1/31/2020), Lowe's reported earnings of US$4.281 billion, with an annual revenue of US$72.148 billion, an increase of 1.17% over the previous fiscal cycle.[32] Lowe's shares traded at over $116 per share,[33] and its market capitalization was valued at over US$90.32 billion in January 2020.
Headquarters
In 1998, Lowe's purchased the Wilkes Mall in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, to serve as the company's headquarters. In 2002, Lowe's acquired full control over the 440,000 sqft building after the 10 remaining mall tenants vacated the property. A year later, Lowe's constructed and relocated the corporate headquarters to a new, 350-acre campus in Mooresville, North Carolina. The new facility contains a five-story and two seven-story buildings. The building has a central atrium and two office wings; the atrium houses a food court, a five-story spiral staircase, and meeting and reception rooms. A 7 acre lake flows underneath the headquarters building.
Lowe's maintained its former headquarters in Wilkesboro, where it employed over 2,400 people until 2019. In 2011, Lowe's invested $10 million in improvements and renovations in the property, including a full-service food court, coffee shop, and health center, as well as gating the entire property with an addition of a guardhouse.[39] All positions have since been relocated and the former Wilkes corporate office is vacant.
On January 30th, 2025, The old headquarters got sold to Finley Properties for 4 Million Dollars.[40]
In addition to Wilkesboro, Lowe's formerly operated a customer contact center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, both of which quietly closed in 2023. Currently, customer contact centers remain in Indianapolis
Environmental record
Lowe's won eight consecutive Energy Star awards from 2003 to 2010, including four Energy Star Partner of the Year awards for educating consumers about the benefits of energy efficiency. On March 1, 2010, Lowe's also became the first winner of the Energy Star Sustained Excellence Award in Retail, to recognize its contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by promoting energy-efficient products and educating consumers and employees on the value of the Energy Star program.[42] In 2000, Lowe's released a policy promising that all wood products sold would not be sourced from rainforests.[43] However, according to a 2006 report released by the Environmental Investigation Agency, wood used in flooring by Armstrong Flooring that Lowe's was selling had been coming from the forests of Indonesia's remote Papua Province, where some logging was estimated to be illegal.[44] According to the Telepak report, which was the sole basis of the EIA allegations, Armstrong commissioned an independent audit of Kreasi's merbau supplies over the last 18 month which found documentation relating to the source of the company's merbau logs in Papua, and based on this, Armstrong decided to continue to trade in merbau supplied by Kreasi. The cited report dates to 2006 and Lowe's continues to claim its wood products come from known sources; is legally harvested and traded, and more.[45]
Labor relations
In April 2019, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) judge found that Lowe's had violated the National Labor Relations Act by illegally forbidding workers from discussing their pay.[49]
In August 2022, Lowe's announced that it was awarding $55 million in bonus income to front-line workers, and that it was offering staff discounts on common household and cleaning items in light of recent inflationary pressures.[50]
In October 2022, a group of 172 workers at a Lowe's store in New Orleans, Louisiana, organizing under the banner of Lowe's Workers United and led by a worker at the store named Felix Allen, filed for a union election with the NLRB.[51] In June 2023, Felix Allen was fired,[52] leading to multiple unfair labor practice charges being filed with the NLRB against Lowe's, accusing the company of multiple violations of labor law in response to the unionization drive at the New Orleans store, including surveillance, interrogation of employees, and retaliating against union organizers.
Advertising and sponsorships
In January 2019, Lowes became the official home improvement sponsor of the National Football League.[54] In April 2024, Lowes launched a partnership with Major League Soccer's Inter Miami CF, Lionel Messi, and the 2024 Copa América.[55]
Racing sponsorships
Lowe's purchased naming rights to Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1998, and the speedway changed names to Lowe's Motor Speedway. After the 10-year naming rights expired, Lowe's extended naming rights by one year.[56] After the one-year extension expired, Lowe's discontinued naming rights, and as of the 2010 racing season, the racetrack returned to its original name. The corporation was the primary sponsor for seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and it was a part-time sponsor of the former No. 5
Canada
Lowe's opened its first three stores in Canada on December10, 2007, in Hamilton, Brampton, and Brantford. On February1, 2008, they opened three more stores in Toronto, East Gwillimbury, and a second store in Brampton, as well as a new location in Maple (Vaughan).[64] Lowe's also expanded into western Canada, starting with three new stores in Calgary, Alberta. One of the three locations opened in late September 2010. The other two opened in early 2011.
In February 2013, Lowe's Canada hired former Walmart Canada and Loblaw Companies executive Sylvain Prud'homme as CEO.[66]
On May11, 2015, Lowe's Canada announced that it would acquire the leases of 13 former Target Canada stores, as well as an Ontario distribution centre, for $151million.[67]
Australia
Trading as Masters Home Improvement, the first store opened in Braybrook, Victoria, to tradesmen on August 31, 2011, and later to the general public. Masters was a joint venture between Lowe's and Woolworths to compete against Bunnings, which operates in the large bigbox format similar to Lowe's and Home Depot.
In January 2016, Woolworths announced that it intended to either sell or wind up all its home improvement areas, including the Masters hardware chain. Chairman Gordon Cairns said that it would take years to become profitable and that the ongoing losses could not be sustained. The windup involved Woolworths buying back a 33.3 per cent interest in the venture, held by the Lowe's subsidiary WDR Delaware Corporation. The last stores closed in December 2016.[75]
Lawsuits
Lowe's was involved in a small cluster of class action lawsuits that revolved around the employee payment system. The cases focused on a pay practice known as "variable rate overtime". Variable-rate overtime has the effect of paying a decreasing overtime rate the more hours a person works in a week. The suits alleged that salaried managers who worked 40 to 50 hours per week were improperly compensated for that time. The variable rate overtime ended in the first quarter of 2006.
The first case was filed in October 2002 by employees of the Lowe's store in Shawnee, Kansas. In September 2005, the cases were certified as a class action. Four similar briefs were filed in New York, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. The lawsuits for New York, Indiana, and Kansas resulted in an out-of-court settlement on September 22, 2006.[76] The lawsuit in Pennsylvania became a class-action lawsuit in June 2004, with 550 employees.[77] The case in Ohio was filed by ten former Lowe's employees in August 2004.[78]
Lowe's faced multiple lawsuits from its Loss Prevention Managers citing that they were classified as exempt employees and therefore denied
See also
External links
References
- News Release Archive - Site Password mediaroom.com, retrieved December 4, 2014^
- 2020 Annual Report retrieved August 8, 2020^
- Lowe's Fortune, retrieved August 7, 2016^