February 28, 2007

Home Depot CEO Frank Blake reinforced his drive to refocus on the business’ retail division at the company’s annual investor and analyst conference. To that end, Blake told participants that acquisitions outside of the retail core won’t be a priority for us.

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HD Supply ended the year at 12% of Home Depot’s overall sales – HD hopes that number will grow to 15% by the end of the year. Still HD Supply, which reached $12 billion in sales in 2006, had a 6.9% decline in organic growth in the fourth quarter. That is consistent with the down housing market.

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Retail also suffered in the fourth quarter 2006 with a profit drop of 28%. Sales were up just 4%. For the year, organic growth was down 2.8%.

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HD does not expect …