Home Centers & Hardware Stores
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 11,200 home center and hardware store companies in the US sell merchandise related to home repair, maintenance, and improvement. Hardware stores generally carry full lines of home repair and maintenance products, but may carry little to no lumber or building materials supplies. Home centers typically carry lumber and building materials in addition to traditional hardware. Companies may offer installation, project management, equipment rental, repair, or warranty services. Customers include DIY (do-it-yourself) customers, DIFM (do-it-for-me) customers, and commercial customers (builders, contractors).
Competition From Alternative Sources
Home centers and hardware stores compete with a variety of alternative sources, including building supply distributors; mass merchandisers; warehouse clubs; design centers and showrooms; and mail order and online retailers.
Complex Inventory Management
The sheer volume of individual stock keeping units (SKU) managed by home centers and hardware stores is staggering.
Industry size & Structure
The average home center employs 500 workers, and generates about $213 million annually, while the average hardware store employs about 10 workers and generates $2 million annually.
- The home center and hardware store industry consists of about 11,200 companies that employ about 917,000 workers and generate about $358 billion annually.
- The home center sector is highly concentrated; the four largest firms account for over 96% of sector sales. The hardware store sector is more fragmented; the 50 largest firms account for 41.5% of sales.
- Large companies include Home Depot, Lowes, and Menards. Thousands of hardware stores operate independently under purchasing cooperative brand names, such as Do It Best, Ace, and True Value.
Industry Forecast
Home Centers & Hardware Stores Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Mar 21, 2023 - Lowe’s, Home Depot Expect Weaker 2023
- In their recent fourth-quarter reporting, home improvement retail giants Home Depot and Lowe’s warned of weaker results in 2023 as consumers pull back on remodeling and shift more spending to services. Lowe’s CEO said consumers have grown more cautious amid inflation and higher interest rates. Home Depot also expects home improvement demand to moderate as spending shifts to experiences such as dining out and travel. Lowe’s said it estimates its same-store sales to, at best, be flat for 2023 and could drop by as much as 2%. Home Depot plans to invest $1 billion in higher wages for hourly workers, which it expects will contribute to a mid-single-digit drop in the company’s adjusted per-share earnings in 2023.
- Residential remodelers’ average gross and net profit margins declined in 2021, according to the 2023 edition of the Remodelers’ Cost of Doing Business Study released in March by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Remodelers’ average gross profit margin grew steadily from 26.8% in 2011 to 30.1% in 2018, but in 2021 fell to 24.9%. The drop in gross margins was primarily due to higher trade contractor and homebuilding costs. However, remodelers’ average net margins were more resilient, dropping 4.7% in 2021 from 5.2% in 2018. Steadily falling operating expenses between 2018 and 2021 held back a steeper decline in average net margins. The study also showed that residential remodeler participation in the single-family homebuilding market is rising. In 2018, 6% of total remodeler revenue came from single-family construction; in 2021, the share rose to 11%. Professionals historically account for about half of Home Depot’s sales.
- Mortgage rates dipped slightly after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, but housing industry watchers are uncertain if lower rates will persist long enough to provide much relief from the affordability issues that have slowed the US housing market, according to Yahoo Finance. Some financial market watchers note that the banking sector's jitters could slow the Federal Reserve’s strategy of taming inflation with rate hikes. Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather told Yahoo Finance, “There's still a lot of uncertainty but in the near term, I do expect mortgage rates to drop. And I expect buyers to take advantage of those mortgage rates because we've seen buyers be incredibly sensitive to those interest rates.” However, some industry insiders suggest that rates would need to drop and stay low for a sustained period to lure more buyers into the market.
- The turmoil in the banking industry – most of which has been among small and mid-size banks – could make it harder for consumers and businesses to secure loans, according to The Wall Street Journal. Some industry watchers suggest that after the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank and the rescue of First Republic Bank, similar small and mid-size institutions could become more cautious in their lending, which could slow economic growth and perhaps lead to a recession. Small and medium-sized banks account for 37% of all outstanding residential real estate loans and 67% of outstanding commercial real estate.
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