Boston, MA, July 15-- Because Lowe's Cos. and its largest competitor have just 22% of the home improvement market share, there is plenty of room for the company to grow, Chief Financial Officer Bob Hull said.
The Mooresville, N.C., company has 18 core categories of merchandise, translating to a $411 billion product market opportunity, Hull told the CIBC World Markets Fourth Annual Consumer Growth Conference in Boston on Wednesday.
In addition to merchandise, Lowe's is also in the $32 billion installation labor market. The combined $443 billion market is "large, growing and highly fragmented," he said.
The home-improvement retailer remains on track to open 140 new stores this year, including four that are being relocated, and 150 new stores next year, Hull said.
In discussing store location overlap with Home Depot Inc., Hull said that just 13% of Lowe's stores competed with Home Depot stores in a 10-mile radius in 1994. That percentage is now 75%. Despite that, Lowe's has consistently grown its top and bottom lines, and it has taken market share away from national home improvement retail chains and hundreds of independent home improvement stores, Hull said.
The retailer's sales were $30.8 billion last year and net income was nearly $1.9 billion.
