Atlanta, GA, March 30, 2007--According to a Securities and Exchange Commission, Home Depot slowed its store growth during 2006.
The company said in the filing that during 2006 it opened 86 new Home Depot U.S. stores, including eight relocations. That’s down from 140 stores, including four relocations, opened during the 2005 fiscal year.
Home Depot CEO Frank Blake said earlier this month that the company was curtailing store growth as it matures. Blake said the company's store square footage growth would roughly match its market growth at about 5 percent, down from double-digit percentages as recently as two years ago.
Accordng to the filing, the company in 2006 opened 20 stores in Canada and 7 in Mexico during 2006, compared with 21 new Canadian stores and 10 new Mexico stores in 2005. The company entered the Chinese market for the first time in 2006 with is acquisition of the Home Way.
The filing also shed more light on its $210 million severance package with former chairman and CEO Bob Nardelli, who resigned in January.
According to the filing, Nardelli will continue to receive reimbursements for the next three years for the premiums on $55.3 million in life insurance he's been carrying
Nardelli left with a severance agreement valued at about $210 million. The life insurance premiums being reimbursed by the company until January 2, 2010, are included in that figure. Home Depot did not disclose the amount of the premiums.
A spokesman said Nardelli had about $30 million in life insurance when he worked as an executive at General Electric Co. that Home Depot assumed when he joined the home improvement chain in December 2000. That amount is part of the $55.3 million in life insurance, which is spread over 13 policies.
