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HD Supply
What Now After Home Depot Takeover?
 HD Supply Warehouse |
Central Florida leaders and national
retail analysts are keeping a close watch on HD Supply, which three private equity firms bought from Home Depot for $8.5 billion in August.
The sale came just 17 months after Home Depot purchased Orlando-based Hughes Supply for $3.47 billion with the intent of rolling it into a larger operation that would build sales to the commercial construction trades. Under former CEO Robert Nardelli, Home Depot combined Hughes Supply with other small suppliers selling both equipment and services. The new business was named HD Supply. After Nardelli’s ouster in January, Home Depot’s management jettisoned the strategy.
Bain Capital, Carlyle Group and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice purchased the company in a deal analysts deemed important because it called for major negotiations amid uncertainty in the financial industries. They’re expected to maintain the name HD Supply.
The company counts more than $13 billion in annual sales, 26,000 employees, 12 business units and almost 1,000 locations, including global support centers in Atlanta and Orlando. In Florida alone, HD Supply employs 4,500 and generates more than $1 billion in sales. As recently as July, the company opened a distribution center for electrical equipment in Orlando, locating it with a plumbing/HVAC facility it had built nine months earlier. The site now employs 325.
 Joe DeAngelo |
Local leaders are wondering whether the company’s expansion plans will mean the same involvement in central Florida, where Hughes Supply leaders sat on local boards and supported philanthropic causes. Under Home Depot’s wing, the company continued to maintain good relationships in the community.
HD Supply’s new Atlanta-based CEO, Joe DeAngelo, has met with central Florida leaders. Company executives will say little about plans for HD Supply’s future, other than confirm they expect the wholesaler to continue its rapid growth.
