Home Depot to Close 11 Landscape Stores

Atlanta, GA, September 20, 2007--Home Depot said it plans to close its 11 Landscape Supply stores within the next two months.

The closures of the five stores in the Atlanta area and six stores in the Dallas area are part of Home Depot's efforts to focus more resources on its core retail business, spokesman Ron DeFeo said.

The company's first Landscape Supply store opened in 2002. The stores catered to the specific needs of the professional customer, as well as the project-oriented do-it-yourselfer.

The stores included a greenhouse and sold products including interior plants, chemicals, pavers and irrigation supplies. It also offered landscaping tool rental.

DeFeo said the company does not provide sales figures for Landscape Supply.

Home Depot has no plans to close any more of its Expo Design Center stores, DeFeo said. In 2005, Home Depot closed 15 of its 54 Expo stores and converted another five to The Home Depot store format.

The company has said it plans to focus more attention on its core business. As part of that, it sold its wholesale distribution business, HD Supply, to a group of private equity groups for $8.5 billion. The sale was completed in August.

Home Depot has said that it would use the proceeds from the sale of HD Supply to partly fund a buyback of up to $22.5 billion in company shares.