Atlanta, Aug. 15--Home Depot Chairman and CEO Bob Nardelli is feeling a little more upbeat these days, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
And why not? The newspaper reported that his overhaul of the Atlanta-based retailer, launched more than 18 months ago, is gaining traction, and Wall Street is noticing.
Home Depot's stock price is up more than 60 percent from a 52-week low of $20.10 on Jan. 29. It closed Wednesday at $33.18, up 5 cents.
"We're starting to see progress," Nardelli said in an interview Wednesday. "We still have a lot of work, a lot of opportunity in front of us. We feel good about the progress, and we feel even better about the opportunities in front of us."
That wasn't the case at the end of last year.
In 2002, Home Depot stock lost 53 percent of its value. Much of the blame and backlash was aimed at Nardelli and his "transformation" of the 24-year-old company.
Nardelli, who had been a top executive at General Electric, joined Home Depot in December 2000. He quickly replaced the company's freewheeling approach with a top-down management style and centralized merchandising. He also used technology to train employees.
The changes upset some longtime executives and employees, and the company's 2002 stock performance made some analysts question his techniques and processes.
At a meeting of analysts in January, Nardelli acknowledged that last year was tough. "Well, the one thing I learned was that after you're skinned, your scar tissue comes back thicker, you know," Nardelli said then.
But in the past few months, several analysts have praised Nardelli's initiatives and said they're starting to pay off.
In a report in which he raised Home Depot's rating to "buy" from "neutral," Banc of America Securities analyst Aram Rubinson said, "[Home Depot] store operations are not just better than a year ago; they are better than pre-Nardelli days."
UBS Investment Research, Goldman Sachs and Smith Barney followed with mostly positive reports in the two weeks before Home Depot's second-quarter earnings announcement, which is set for Tuesday.
Nardelli credits the company's recent success to investment in its stores and employees.
A $250 million remodeling program have rendered many Home Depot locations "cleaner, brighter, more shoppable," he said. Also, Home Depot has "made a ton of progress" in assembling a solid leadership team, Nardelli said.
