Asset and Builders Square

Perform an internal analysis of the proposed Marble Slab franchise. Does Thomas have the capabilities to make this franchise successful?

Lowe’s (LOW) and Home Depot (HD) are competitors in the every growing market of Home Improvement. The following analysis of each company will examine the home improvement industry, the individual companies, their operating philosophies, their financial strengths or weaknesses, and a final conclusion on which company would be a better long-term investment.

Retailing building supply stores have become a popular retail industry sector due to increased public awareness and the need of many homeowners for the home improvement products. Back in the 1970s, long before warehouse stores ruled home improvement land, do-it-yourselfers shopped at “home centers.” These 30,000 square foot stores offered cheaper prices and wider selection of products, about 25,000 more than local hardware stores and eliminated the extra trip to the lumberyard. The dependence of many of these retailers upon the homebuilding industry for much of their business has also been reduced and the warehouse superstores, such as Home Depot, have become more important. The smaller companies in the

Moreover, through expanding its business in the Canadian and Australian market would help Lowe’s to outperform its competitors as Home Depot in the housing market. In addition, decrease the size of stores would reduce the expenses and cost of operations that enhance the profit of Lowe’s that help it to take competitive position in the housing market and continue improve its economy or financial position (Stuart, 2012). So, Lowe’s should expand its business in the Canadian and Australian market to improve its present in international market s well as reduce the size of its stores to decline the operations costs that would best strategies for it to outperform Hemo Depot and economy continue to

The only competition the merged firm would face in some areas is OfficeMax. Even though many other retailers sell office supplies, none of them offer the same variety and one-stop shopping convenience as office superstores do. The situation is unlikely to change over time due to high barriers of entry into the market, which will give the merged firm an opportunity to raise its prices annually and still keep customers coming back.

The home improvement sector of the economy is large with two major players in the industry and with many smaller local and regional competitors. These two major competitors are Home Depot and Lowe’s. These two companies account for over $110 billion in total sales each year. Even though sales have gone down over the past few years due to the downturn in the economy they have not gone down nearly as much as home sales and this is due to more people deciding to do more home improvements to their own home then buying a new home. Both of these companies have been able to keep up sales and increase them year over year by improving current

However, in 1999, Lowe’s recorded very high sales growth alongside its expansion in preparation for the new millennium. From 1999 to 2001, Lowe’s began to assert itself as a worthy competitor for Home Depot, embodied in its significantly better margins and turnover ratios despite the recessionary economic environment. This improvement in ratios is indicative of positive change in the management of the

The first company that will be analyzed is Home Depot. Home Depot's total assets increased to $40,518 million from $40,125, an increase of 0.9%. These figures, however, are lower than the value of total assets on the books for HD for the prior three years. The 2008 fiscal year was the point where Home Depot had the highest asset levels at $44.324 billion. The recession has been the biggest culprit for the decline in the size of Home Depot. All of the firms in the building supplies industry have a strong relationship between their sales and the strength of the housing market, as home purchases are a major impetus for home renovation projects. Home Depot's size declined with the onset of slowness in the housing market, and it is expected that its size will not begin to increase until the housing market recovers. Home Depot management has noted that there are signs of life in the US housing market, and that this should be taken as an encouraging sign for the company (Isidore, 2012). Indeed, the company's balance sheet has grown in size throughout the 2013 fiscal year, so that the latest Q3 total

This paper will discuss the kroger company’s strategy and competitive advantage. It will also discuss competition and strategy from rival company Walmart. Research will show whether Kroger uses an offensive or defensive strategic approach to business practices. It will discuss mergers and acquisitions of The Kroger Company (Bethel University, 2017).

The article “Is Kmart closing? Sears says no” by Paul Monica is about the recent rumors of the Kmart stores closing down. With Sears stock down 35% many would’ve thought they’d cut the Kmart franchise. However, Eddie Lambert, the Sears CEO, states, “there are no plans and there have never been any plans to close the Kmart format” (Monica 1). This came as a surprise as most have noticed the disappearance of Sears and Kmart’s due to poor sales. Monica believes keeping the Kmart’s open may be a bad idea since we’re surrounded by Amazon and Walmart sales.

According to Rusli, the merger would create more in-store traffic for CVS and increase both companies’ consumer base. This merger gave CVS the opportunity to expand both its own small pharmacy benefits manager business and mail order business. CVS’s opportunity to take advantage of Caremark’s pharmacy benefits manager business allowed it to take advantage of the mail order business as well that had begun cutting into drug stores’ revenue (Rusli, 2013). By providing its customers with a unique set of services and gaining the market power to control costs, CVS Caremark gained a competitive advantage. Unless competitors like Walgreens and Rite Aid find a way to respond to CVS Caremark’s strategy, it will be difficult to remain competitive with this firm for long. Overall, the merger was a great strategic move on behalf of both organizations, which helped ensure the current success of CVS Caremark.

     Last but not least, Vicky must consider the duty to the future employees of the company. If the key personnel of the other firms accept the generous but wicked offer from K.I., then it is clear they are absolutely unaware of the potential consequences of their decision. Vicky has to make sure that the new employees know what the future might hold for

However in 1985, Home Depot’s 9.7% ROE was much lower than Hechinger’s 15.8%. The main factor for this big drop was the ROE component, Ratio of Profit before Taxes to Sales. Home Depot’s 1.66% profit before taxes to sales trailed the 7.8% earned by Hechinger. It suggests that Home Depot had expense control issues. However depending on Hechinger’s growth strategy in 1985, Home Depot may have had a lower profit ratio due to its expansion strategy, and therefore the expense ratio is incomparable if Hechinger was not employing a significant growth strategy.

Recently, two employees from the firm were told that the discount deal was no longer in effect by one of La Polpetta’s managers named Shane. Shane, being relatively new to La Polpetta, is doing a great job as a manager; however, I believe that the decision to continue the 30 percent discount deal is extremely important and requires an equal

Due to slow sales and less traffic at both Sears and Kmart, the two have decided to merge creating one entity named Sears Holdings. Kmart has agreed to buy Sears for $11 Billion. This puts Sears Holdings at the third largest retailer behind Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Although Wal-Mart is a direct competitor with Kmart, Sears Holdings goal is not to compete with Wal-Mart directly, but find areas that have been overlooked by other retailers, and take advantage of the expanded line of products the new company has to offer. Sears has had higher sales than Kmart, so hundreds of Kmart’s will be transformed into Sears stores. As of now, most of Sears 870 stores are only found in malls. The new strategy would be to open Sears stores in current