Small Business Solutions
Elizabeth Blackwell
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Another day, another depressing housing-related headline. This time, the bad news came from the country's largest home-improvement retailers. Home Depot (HD - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and Lowe's (LOW - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) reported their first-quarter earnings this week, and in both cases, the report was grim. But look beyond the major companies and you'll find some surprisingly good news. It turns out that small businesses specializing in home services may be doing better than the big guys. At Home Depot, net earnings fell a staggering 66%, although about half that was due to a one-time charge of $543 million to close 15 stores and halt plans to build 50 more. Without the charge, earnings were still down about 30%, and sales at stores open at least a year fell 6.5%. With fewer people selling their houses and moving, fewer customers have been showing up at Home Depot for paint, window shades and other new-home necessities. "The housing and home improvement markets remained difficult in the first quarter; in fact, conditions worsened in many areas of the country," said Chairman and CEO Frank Blake, in a statement. The news at Lowe's was slightly better, but not by much. First-quarter profit fell 18%, and same-store sales dropped 8%. Lowe's chairman and CEO Robert A. Niblock had a similar explanation for the company's woes: "The generally poor economic outlook, including well-known housing pressures, rising food and fuel prices and a more negative employment picture eroded consumer confidence and impacted discretionary purchases for the home." If the news is this bad at the country's biggest home-products retailers, it must be disastrous for the entire home improvement industry, right?
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