Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Chairman and CEO, Frank Blake.
Good morning. Good morning, and thank you all for coming to the 2013 Annual Shareholders Meeting. Before we start the meeting, I'd like to make a few introductions. First, it's my pleasure to introduce our Board of Directors. I think you may have had a chance to meet some of them earlier this morning.
They are Duane Ackerman, Ari Vosbib, Greg Brenneman, Frank Brown, Al Carey, Armando Cadena, Karen Catan, Mark Baden and our Lead Director, Bonnie Hill. The members of our senior leadership team are also here and I'd like them just to stand. Thank you all. Finally, I'd like to recognize Dave Mittendorf and Larry Bradley of KPMG, the company's independent auditor. We'll begin today's meeting with the formal business portion.
This consists of the election of directors named in the proxy statement, ratification of auditors and consideration of the I now officially call the 20 Blake. I now officially call the 2013 annual meeting of the shareholders of The Home Depot to order. Teresa Wynne Roseboro, our General Counsel and Corporate Secretary is serving as Secretary of the meeting and Broadridge Investor Communications Solutions Is our Inspector of Elections. As of March 25, 2013, which is the record date for the meeting, There were approximately 1,400,000,000 shares of the company's common stock entitled to vote. A majority of these shares is needed for a quorum and majority are represented here today and we have a quorum.
If you haven't voted yet and would like to vote today, please raise your hand now so we can give you a ballot. We'll collect your ballots after all the proposals have been presented. If you voted already, you don't have to vote again. And I now declare the polls open for voting. So raise your hand if you need a ballot.
All right. The first item of business is the election of directors, which Item 1 on your ballot. The Board has nominated the individuals named in the proxy statement to serve for a 1 year term Through the 2014 Annual Meeting. Your Board recommends that you vote for each of these directors. We'll now move on to the next proposal.
The next item is the ratification of the appointment of KPMG as the independent auditors of the company for fiscal 2013 item 2 on your ballot. Your board recommends that you vote for this proposal. We'll now move on to the next proposal. The next item is the advisory vote on executive compensation also known as say Blight. Which is item 3 on your ballot.
Specifically, you are being asked to approve the compensation of the company's named executive Blight. As disclosed in the proxy statement for this meeting, your board recommends that you vote for this Proposal. We'll now move on to the next proposal. The next item, item 4 on your ballot His approval of the material terms of officer performance goals under the company's management incentive plan. Your Board recommends that you vote for this proposal.
We'll move on to the next proposal. The next item is approval of the company's amended and restated 2005 Omnibus Stock Incentive Plan, Item 5 on your ballot. Your Board recommends that you vote for this proposal. We'll now move on to the shareholder proposals. The next item, Consideration of the shareholder proposal regarding Employment Diversity Reports is item 6 on your ballot.
I'll ask Ms. Lynn Conley, a representative of Benedictine Sisters and the other proponents to please step to the
Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the Board and shareholders who are gathered today. I am Lynne Conley here today representing the Benedictine Sisters from Boerne, Texas. I also represent several members of the Interfaith Center Blight. Who are shareholders and co filers to this proposal.
These groups are long term shareholders of The Home Depot. Proposal number 6 on the ballot seeks a Board review of our company's policies regarding disclosure of equal employment opportunity data known as EEO-one data And public reporting of diversity issues to shareholders. The full text of the proposal can be found on Page 28 of the proxy statement. Equal employment opportunity is an investment concern. When allegations of discrimination in the workplace burden shareholders Blight.
With costly litigation and add risk to a company's brand, there is an impact to shareholder value. We contend descriptions don't go far enough to mitigate potential risks. We mentioned in the resolution that Home Depot has paid out more than $100,000,000 to Blight. We appreciate that Home Depot has published a diversity and inclusion report in March 2013. It did not give a chart identifying employees by gender and race in each of the EEOC defined categories.
This resolution, which has been filed over the Blight. Several years focuses on the importance of measurement and disclosure of diversity issues to its shareholders. To manage diversity, companies have to be able to measure it. That is why we have asked the EEO-one data, which offers investors a measurement tool. An EEO report is submitted annually by Home Depot to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Providing data to shareholders would not pose an added Financial burden. The company actually did provide the information for 1 year and then stopped. In the absence of meaningful Investors cannot fully assess potential risks Home Depot faces nor for that matter identify successful diversity efforts. Moreover, while other brand name companies have advanced transparency measures in place, we feel that Home Depot has lagged. IBM, Intel, Merck And Coca Cola to name a few who have been disclosing EEO data for at least the past 5 years.
We feel this is a Blight. Bottom line issue affecting competitiveness and market share. We ask Home Depot to report diversity disclosure to All shareholders. We met with the corporate secretary and others to offer a way forward for 2014. We hope they will take us up on the ideas we gave.
Thank you for your time and we ask you to vote in favor of stockholder proposal number 6.
Thank you, Ms. Connolly. Your Board recommends that you vote against this proposal. And we'll now move forward to The next item, item 7 on your ballot is consideration of the shareholder proposal regarding a stormwater management policy. I'll ask Lynn Conley, a representative of David Brook to please step to the microphone and present the proposal.
Hi, again. Good morning. My name is Lynne Stillington. I'm speaking on behalf of Mr. David Brook Starting his shareholder proposal listed as item number 7 on today's agenda.
Mr. Brook was unable to attend today's meeting, but he wishes his best to the Board and management and his fellow shareholders. This is The 2nd year that Mr. Brook has made this proposal. Last year, as you may recall, Mr.
Brook asked all of you the simple question, why am I here? This year, he is repeating the same question as to why is it taking the Home Depot so long to realize that without a defined Policy as he is proposing for keeping all lawn and garden products from exposure to precipitation that the Home Depot will continue to lose Blight. Profitability, spend unnecessary money on hazardous waste disposal and cause continued environmental degradation To 2,248 streams and rivers across the United States. The Brooks shareholder proposal titled No Rain, No Runoff, Simply ask the Home Depot to not store soluble garden products where they are exposed to rain and snow. Garden products contain nutrients, pesticides, Herbicides, fungicides and other chemicals.
When these products are stored outside and bags rip and tear, which they do, and get rained on, These products leak out in concentrated form into our streams and rivers as contaminated stormwater. The United States Environmental Protection Agency and State Environmental Identify contaminated stormwater as a significant environmental concern, especially in the handling of garden products containing The Brooks shareholder proposal offers a simple preventive measure that will greatly enhance corporate profitability and minimize Environmental degradation. Since once a bag is once a bag of fertilizer is broken and it It gets rained on, it must be disposed as hazardous waste. The Home Depot has already paid fines in other states for Failure to comply with more stringent stormwater controls in Connecticut and for improper hazardous waste disposal in the state of California. So this proposal will help to prevent future regulatory penalties, which means larger profits for The Home Depot and its shareholders.
Management at The Home Depot has refused to disclose how much money The Home Depot is spending each year for the disposal of hazardous waste. But Mr. Brooks believes that the majority of hazardous waste generated is coming directly from these damaged and saturated bags of lawn and garden products. These costs would be Blight. Implementation of the Brook proposal will reduce the high cost of hazardous waste handling and Minimize harm to the environment by reducing contaminated runoff, increased corporate profitability, a contaminated bag means no sale and then a high cost to Those of it plus possible finds and improve Home Depot's environmental performance.
In other words, the Brooks shareholder proposal will be a win win win for Blight. For the Home Depot, the environment and the investors, how could anyone not support it? Incidentally, 2 years ago, Mr. Brook made the same Blight. At Loews Companies and after some detailed discussions, Loews Companies has chosen to voluntarily implement this improved stormwater management policy at all of its 1745 stores nationwide.
This implementation started in January of Blight. This year in California and New York, and it is now having a full rollout across the country. Mr. Brooks believes that Lowe's Company has determined that Implementation of the Brook proposal will benefit its corporate performance and profitability. So he believes that the same conclusion will be true for the Home Depot.
By the way, Mr. Brook was recently told by the Home Depot management that some form of action was made to address this issue. So it sounds like management agrees with Blight. Apparently, the stores may have been told not to place fertilizers where they can get rained on, but here's the problem. Without a defined policy and some checks and balances, implementation will not be guaranteed.
A recent random tour of Home Depot Store locations in New Jersey by Mr. Brooks showed that these products continue to be stored outside exposed to rain. So apparently, someone at the store level did not get the memo. That sad reality continues to reinforce the sound reasoning in the proposal that is That management must thoroughly institutionalize this no rain, no runoff policy in order for it to actually begin to work. For example, the Home Depot does not simply recommend that its employees watch their health and safety.
No, it has established careful measures Blake. And then it commits supervisory resources to ensure that all its employees adhere to policies that will protect their health and safety. In the same way, in order for the Brook proposal to work, management must also commit resources so that all employees know what the policy is and how it should be Mr. Brook is hopeful that between today and next year that management will work to create a defined policy, Which will realistically implement the simple requirements of the Brook proposal, so that the Home Depot can produce its hazardous Waste generation increase its profitability and minimize its pollution footprint to America's streams and rivers. It It is for the preceding reasons that Mr.
Brook asked all shareholders to vote yes on proposal number 7. If you would like any additional information, please go to Mr. Corporate and environmental performance of The Home Depot.
Thank you, Ms. Conley. Your Board recommends that you vote against this proposal. We'll now move on to the preliminary voting results. If you've requested a ballot, please mark your vote and sign it We're indicated.
When you've finished, please raise your hand and one of our volunteers will collect your ballot. Are all ballots collected? No, not quite yet. All right. All ballots collected.
All right. The ballots have been collected and the polls are now closed. I'd now like to review the preliminary results of today's voting. All of the director nominees named in the proxy statement Have been elected by a majority of the votes cast. Approximately 99% of the votes cast have voted in favor Blake.
Approximately 93% of the votes cast have voted in favor of the compensation of the company's named executive Approximately 75% of the votes cast have voted in favor of the company's proposal To approve the material terms of officer performance goals under the management incentive plan. Approximately 95% of those cast have voted in cast have voted in favor of the shareholder proposal regarding employment diversity reports and approximately 4% of the votes cast Have voted in favor of the shareholder proposal regarding a stormwater management policy. Based on the preliminary vote count, All of the nominees for the Board of Directors have been elected. The appointment of KPMG as the company's independent auditors for fiscal 20 13 has been ratified. A majority of votes cast approved our executive compensation and the company's proposal regarding the management incentive plan and Stock incentive plan has been approved.
None of the shareholder proposals has been approved. Please note The ballots collected at this meeting will be verified and tabulated by our Inspector of Elections and final results of the vote will be available in a Form 8 ks, This concludes our formal business and I declare the meeting adjourned And we'll now move to an overview of our business. And at the end of our business overview, open it up So I start with this reminder that these are forward looking Statements and if you can read the small pipe, you'll understand the caution with which you should judge these forward looking statements. Now, we've shown a version of this chart at our Annual Meeting for the last several years. It Shows private fixed residential investment, PFRI, which includes new homebuilding, remodel activity and other housing related spend As a percent of GDP.
The positive news this year is that even though PFRI as a percent of GDP Continues to be near its 60 year low, it is showing signs of a recovery. Prior to 2010, our results correlated We decoupled from PFRI starting in 2010 and recently GDP, U. S. GDP has been a better indicator of our growth. And as you may remember, U.
S. GDP grew at 2.2% In 2012, the recovery of the housing market is though obviously important to us and we think can add to our growth Moving to our financial results in fiscal 2012, a 53 week year, Sales finished up 6.2% and we had our 3rd consecutive year of positive comps. Total Company comp sales were up 4.6% and comps for our U. S. Stores were positive 4.9%.
We saw And your company continues to generate strong cash flow. We generated 7.5 $1,000,000,000 in cash in fiscal 2012. We spent $1,300,000,000 on capital improvements. We returned $1,700,000,000 to shareholders through dividends and repurchased $4,000,000,000 in shares, leaving $2,500,000,000 in cash. Along with delivering better than Blight.
Blight. We are targeting a dividend payout ratio of 50%. And as you can see, our yield The market rewarded your company's performance. In In fiscal 2012, Home Depot shares appreciated approximately 50% and outperformed The Dow Jones Industrial Average by approximately 39% and the S and P 500 by approximately 35%. The focus of our business over the past several years and our strategic framework is what we call the 3 Borrowing from Jim Collins' book Good TO Great, we start with what we're passionate about customer service.
Then what we want to be best in the world at, product authority for home improvement. And finally, what drives our Blake. Our economic engine, discipline, capital allocation and productivity and efficiency. The element that ties Blight. Together is represented on this chart as interconnected retail.
We believe that over the next decade, the winners in retail will be those who deliver For customer service, we've created a clear, concise and simple Operational plan which we have maintained for the past 4 years. We talk about the big three customer service, in stock and store environment. We have retrained all of our store associates on customer service and the initiative we launched in 2009 called Customers First. We have simplified our in stock processes and continue to focus on the basics of store cleanliness and presentation. We're very proud that both external and internal surveys of our customer service continue to improve.
Driving product authority through continued development of tools, capabilities and analytics remains a strategic priority. First, we approach product categories with an understanding that they each fill a different need and role in the portfolio of Blake. 2nd, we've been on a long term path to develop a world class supply chain to drive productivity and efficiency. And third, our customers are looking for innovative products that make projects simpler to do and create As the customer experience transforms, we must offer customers the ability to shop anywhere, anytime and any way they want. Our initiatives have shown good growth and in fiscal 2012, we saw over 650,000,000 visits To our online properties, we launched buy online ship to store in 2012 and believe this functionality along with buy online return in Store and buy online, pick up in store are the fundamental building blocks of our interconnected retail strategy.
And we opened 2 new 80,000 square foot call centers to support our growing online business. Moving to our shareholder return principles. We are committed to returning capital to our shareholders in the form of dividends and Blight. Our share repurchase principle is to use excess cash to repurchase shares. And from a return on capital perspective, Our goal is to maintain a high return on capital, benchmarking all uses of excess liquidity against value created for shareholders On the international front, in Canada, Home Depot is the number one home improvement retailer.
We positively comped for the year and continued to show improved performance. In Mexico, Home Depot is the number one home Improvement retailer. Ricardo Saldivar and his team have produced positive comps for 38 quarters We also opened our 1 hundredth store in Mexico in fiscal 2012, a significant milestone in the growth Now let's turn to our 2013 outlook. We continue to see strength In the core of our store and for the year, we project sales growth of approximately 2.8%. Please remember that we are comparing A 52 week year in 2013 against a 53 week year in 2012.
We expect our comp sales to be up Blake. Approximately 4% in 2013 and for the year we are planning to open 9 stores with 7 of those store openings in We expect diluted earnings per share to increase approximately 17% to $3.52 Including $6,500,000,000 in share repurchases. Our overall strategy has not changed. We will continue to invest In customer service, product authority and interconnected retail with an overall focus on a disciplined capital Allocation strategy creating value for our shareholders. And in closing, I just want to briefly discuss the culture of Our company, the power of The Home Depot starts with the power of a values based business.
We believe that if we take care of our associates and take care of our customers, The rest will take care of itself. Since this coming weekend is Memorial Day weekend, I thought I'd To highlight in closing some of our activities in 2012 that were directed to the benefit of our country's veterans. We repaired and rehabbed over 4,000 homes for veterans. We provided cash grants of approximately $25,000,000 to hundreds of non profits specifically serving veterans. In 2011, We pledged $30,000,000 to help our country's veterans over 3 years.
We actually hit that Target in 2012 and pledged another $50,000,000 on behalf of our veterans. It is our way of saying thank you And giving back to our community. So with that, Thank you very much. And if you have any questions, you can Proceed to the microphone. And please identify yourself With your question.
Thank you. Good morning. I'm David Reitnour representing the National Center For Public Blythe. Research, which is conservative free market think tank and a company shareholder. Home Depot is a member of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, one of the country's largest, Washington D.
C.-based trade associations, Ryla has launched a massive market And labor distorting campaign dubbed Sustainability. Under this so called sustainability campaign, it is currently pressuring its members to make capital expenditures that often have limited prospects for reasonable return. Rylaw also advocates Blight. Finally, Raila is advocating top down sustainability standards, that go beyond its own members affecting the entire Blight. Despite the likelihood that these standards will increase suppliers' costs and in turn, the cost of the goods that they sell.
As Our concern is that this push for so called sustainability will harm Home Depot's shareholders, suppliers and customers As they will bear the associated costs. My organization, the National Center For Public Policy Research, conducted a national poll on these issues in January. Results indicated that 52% of consumers given a choice aren't willing to spend a single penny more for their products For a sustainability label and 56% believe it is unfair to ask the public to pay more so retailers Blythe. We are also concerned that this sustainability effort will add an additional layer of regulation Blight. You know as well as anybody else that it's already a heavily regulated industry by federal, state and local governments.
The economy has been stagnant for nearly 5 years and in the last quarter it actually shrank again. Measures that expand growth And sales are good for Home Depot and the nation. Those that don't are not. Where does management stand on the question Of its trade association imposing sustainability standards on its members, including Home Depot, does management support the idea of Ryla Opposing such standards or is it opposing mandatory sustainability standards and standing up for the right of each retailer to make its own decisions regarding the best way to lawfully and ethically satisfy the needs of its customers and shareholders.
Thank you very much. Thank you for the comment and the concern. What I would say to all of our shareholders, if If you look at the last chart I showed in concluding my business overview, we start with the principle that it is very important for us To be a values based business, one of our values is making sure that we operate as an appropriate citizen Blight. What we have found as a business is that very often sustainability is one of those issues where Both the shareholders gain through our improved performance as well as our communities and our society gains As we provide a better way of doing business and we are committed to that. We'll continue to be committed to that.
I don't think in terms of the The vision that you're suggesting between shareholder interest and sustainability that is one Of avoiding, we're very conscious of knitting those together. But thank you for your concern.
If I can ask a very quick follow-up. Please. The specific question was With regard to operating within an association such as this, obviously, the company has An interest in treading lightly on the environment. Nobody wants to do any harm to the environment. I am just saying that when you are dealing with an association And they are taking the lead on this.
You are necessarily giving over power to them. And my view and probably a lot of shareholders would be as well is that we would better trust your judgment than the CEO of Walmart or Best Buy.
Well, I'm sure their judgments are good as well. But what I would say is we are obviously always very careful with what we We do with our associations in Washington including the Retail Industry Leaders Association, Ryla, and make sure that When we are participating in their efforts, we're participating appropriately for our shareholders.
Thank you very much.
Yes. Thank you. Any other?
Good morning, shareholders, and good morning, Frank. First, thank you for the veterans that you're supporting, which I'm one also.
While we know each other because you've been here in prior meetings, you might want to identify yourself.
Yes. I was going to do that right now. Okay. I'm Gary Patton. I'm a 21 year employee with Home Depot out of Greenville, South Carolina.
I appreciate the last question that was asked. And I wanted to ask you something specific also. I'm having a hard time figuring it out completely. How is the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which should be fully implemented in January, I believe, of next year affecting us employees here with The Home Depot and our deductions, our medical coverage and all of that. Can you foresee or share with me in layman's terms How that might be affecting us?
Thank you, Gary and I will. So this is a very broad answer. But what I would say is first off, it It is a very complex law and we've been spending a lot of time as management team and also with our Board going through some of the implications of There's been a lot written about how some companies might decide not to provide health insurance for their associates And instead choose to pay a penalty. Your company will not do that. We think it is critical as part Our values that we continue to provide our associates, health care as we can under the act and
we will do that. Could I ask one follow-up, please?
Coincidentally, this morning on Fox, They were talking about that and said there was discussion about a lot of companies just giving the bare minimum to avoid the penalty Of not giving anything like you just mentioned, could we be assured of quality service like one thing, I've always been able to brag about Home Depot, We have good coverage. I've been told we have some of the best eye insurance, some of the best medical insurance in the industry. I'm proud of that. I'm glad to say that I participated in that with Home Depot. But can we still consider the same high level of coverage?
So, Guy, yes, I would say and I don't know enough to be able to respond specifically to eye coverage or particular elements of the coverage. But As I commented before and as you know, our view is if we take care of our associates and take care of our customers, everything takes care of itself, Everything else? We will continue to take care of our associates. There'll be changes. The law will create some changes.
They'll create some changes in the Blake. But we will be guided by wanting to provide to our associates strong coverage.
Thank you very much. Thanks,
Gary. You ready for me? My name is Tanay James. 9 years ago, came to Home Depot, worked my way up through Home Depot. My statement here today Is to speak to diversity and employment practices.
Unfortunately, 9 months ago, I was Terminated by Home Depot, unfairly as it was. My concern here today is about People with disabilities, I am a dialysis patient, was not always treated fairly in the store that I came out of. As a shareholder, it was important for me to ask the question, what practices are you going to put in place to help people out In the stores that are not being fairly treated, I would have dialysis appointments and my store manager wouldn't schedule me coverage to go do those treatments. Since my termination, I have been taken off the transplant list, but I'm still going. And my issue here is Your practice says that you take care of your associates, but that is not always the case.
And my concern is that Even though there are processes in place, they do not get acknowledged and presented well in the stores. So I would like to know if there's going to be some processes going forward to help people like myself.
Well, first off, I obviously don't know the Blake. And what I would suggest is we have our HR team here this morning and they'll follow-up with To make sure that you feel like you're being fairly treated. Thank you.
Hi. I'm Wellington Lee. I want to know from you And also your management team. What have you learned from your entry into and your exit or reduced
Thank you very much, sir. And what he's referencing is over the past year in 20 Blight. We had a large store format presence in China and we closed down those large stores. I would say the dominant lesson learned It is always the customer decides. And we and I put that on myself, We weren't as focused initially on the development of our business model in China on the Chinese We weren't as focused and knowledgeable as we should have been.
Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. About 9 or 10 years ago, we were introduced to the idea that Home Depot would start selling Major appliances in its stores.
I'm just wondering, in the next 5 years, Are we going to see any new items in Home Depot? What are you guys thinking about
Thank you, sir. Thank you for the question. I don't know if you want to identify yourself.
I'm sorry if If I didn't, my name is Ken Kaplan. I'm from Seminole, Florida.
Thank you very much and thanks for being here. It is A constant source of work with our merchants and store operations team to be identifying new products and new product categories Blight. To develop in our store and now online, I won't go through the whole list with you, but I could tell you that a great deal of the growth your Company has had over the past several years has been expanding into new categories. A good example is if you a few years ago, if You walked into a Home Depot store, you might be hard pressed to know that we sold cleaning products. Now when you go into a Home Depot Hopefully, you'll see that immediately that we have a major presence in cleaning products and a growing presence in cleaning And that's just one example, but thank you very much for the question, sir.
Yes. I'm Leigh Beers. I've been in this county since 1957 and I've watched Home Depot grow up. It's Pretty exciting to watch you. I have a question about Mr.
Brooks' request. I don't understand why you all keep pushing back against him. It only makes good business sense. And why do you always, if a shareholder makes a proposal, you recommend a vote They can't all be bad.
Well, thank you very much. They aren't all bad. And what you'd be interested to know is, so you've seen over the years the number of proposals go down and That's because very frequently the shareholders come to us in advance and say this is what we're thinking of and we say that's a good idea And we do it and there's no need to have a proposal. So it tends to be that the shareholder proposals select to those where there's some disagreement with Blight. So it's we listen to our shareholders and our shareholders are a great source of new ideas.
Specifically with Mr. Brooks' suggestion, the issue for us operationally is what Mr. Brooks would do is take a particular element of Our environmental management plan for the store and provide a particular focus on that element. And we think it is better looking at That specific activity that he's concerned about will put it in the context of a larger environmental management program. So it's Really the mode for addressing the problem that is one of the differences with Mr.
Brooks. Thank you. Yes, sir. Well, no, go. I think it's best to go on the microphone.
Thank you. Yes, ma'am. We'll start with you.
Hi. My name is Shawnie Guney, one of your shareholders. And I used to work with Home Depot about 20 years ago. Anyway, not concerned about employment. I'm just concerned about the Service and the product, one time, we bought this water heater, okay?
And it cost us about $140 but then we were not told about someone will And then after that, we would come out of bill about over $600 And I said, my God, you see, what What is the cost of my water heater? And it cost me $600 And they said that because of the labor. The labor should not cost that It's not that hard to install our new water heater. So that's another thing. I wish one of your representatives tell us that this how much it's going to cost for the labor And this is how much for the item.
So we'll be prepared how much we can pay. And also, one time, we bought also regarding stuff like chainsaw or something. And on the mail, we were given a 10% discount, but it did not specify what item that we can get the 10%. So So I expect that because he did not specify what items. So I assume that when we bought this item, we'll be given a 10%.
And not only that, when we order when they have when we ordered the item, it's not available at the time, they said it will be a special order. So we did that. But then we got the bill right away in a matter of 2 weeks and then I refused to pay it. And then after 2 weeks later, I got another bill with the finance charge interest on that. And I said, You know what, I'm going to the main office and complain about it.
And I told them, we haven't gotten the item yet. Why am I not why am I billing Build for the items that have not that we have not received. So all I want you guys is to improve your, What you call it, billing system.
So thank you very much for your comment and we'll have someone from our team here address You after the meeting and take care of your concerns. So thank you. Thank
you. Yes, sir.
Good morning. A question, What is the stock selling at now? What was the latest quote? Do you know?
Before I don't know, as we were exiting yesterday, I think the stock was slightly over $79
Okay. I'd like to Comment and compliment you. 5 years ago, the low was 17 and change. It's now 76 and change. At what point do you anticipate if it keeps going that you think you might split
Well, thank you very much. I don't know if you want to identify yourself.
Well, I work for the CIA.
All right.
The CIA always asks those tough questions. Thank you very much for the question. Your company, we do not have an intent to split our stock, but thank you very much for the question. Any other are there any other questions? Yes, sir.
I'm Jack Edwards, a long time Home Depot's stockholder since the 1980s. I was in a Home Depot store yesterday, the Doraville store, which is one of Flagship stores. And I was so impressed by the service there. Walking inside the door, I was greeted immediately by a district manager. I'm sorry, I forgot his name.
But my 2 hours in the store, I had several employees come up to me without my asking and Bob and Jerry helped me If I had any questions, he was most impressive. And this is just the opposite of the way it was some years And so services has in that store has improved tremendously. Question I have is, Several years ago when you became CEO, the HD Supply Business was It was disposed of within a very short time, within months, except for a certain, I think, minority interest we At the time, I thought that was I was wondering if that was a harsh and too quick decision. In hindsight, What's your comments on was that a good move or not?
Well, first off, thank you very much for your comments about the service in the stores. That's hugely important to us. Obviously, It is really what drives everything in our company. And both at the time and looking back on Blight. My comment would be, it is very difficult for any organization to be excellent at one thing.
It is extraordinarily, extraordinarily difficult for an organization to be good In two lines of businesses. And from my perspective, it was better for the Home Depot and the Board's perspective, Better for the Home Depot to be focused on being excellent in our retail operation. That was the case in 2007. I think that is still the case in 2013.
Thank you. Thank you.
Good morning. My name is
Joy Krasniewski, and I'm a shareholder with Home Depot. And my question this morning is, Is the company doing anything to find more American made products and let the customer decide if They want to buy American made which might be more costly than the imported items.
Yes. Thank you very much. You'll see that in our stores. We will frequently call out that products are made in America and give our customers the choice. Thank you.
Gary, yes, yes, sir.
May I ask one more question? Absolutely. Unrelated to my other previous remarks. We get many more compliments than we do negative many more positive things since you've came aboard than we do the negative ones. So thank you.
You're You're doing a very good job and we the employees thank you for that too.
You're doing the job, Gary. I'm just looking at the mic. Well,
you're setting the tone like leadership. We expect it to be set for us Down here at the bottom. But anyway, we still have a hard time with getting enough employees On the floor at different times and we have a lot more compliments during the power hour when we have the greeters and people are focused more on the customer 1 on 1 face to face attention. But at other times, it would just be nice to see like the old days when we had more employees on the floor. Can you Explain what we might be doing if anything to keep improving that.
Yes. Thanks, Gary. And it's a great comment. And for those of you who aren't familiar with how Our business works. The interesting thing about our business model is we are very much generated by sales.
So the more sales and transactions in the store, the more hours the store generates. So one of the positive things about The recovery for us as the business returns is we can return more hours to the floor of the store. And then To the efforts of Marvin Ellison and his team, we hopefully simplify our operational processes so more of those hours can Blake. We need more sales, generates more hours and that's the positive aspect of our business.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman. My name is Tim Lewis. I live in the Orlando area, original investor in The Home And I want to thank you for that.
Thank you.
I thought it might be interesting to you that one of the major television Blight. Stations in Metropolitan Orlando, I believe
it was WFTV, did a
undercover survey of 5 different Blight. Retail outlets in our area, and we're the Home Depot, Walmart, Target, Publix and Lowe's. And they're unannounced 5 different stores for each one of them and they recorded the amount of Time that it took for an associate to approach the individual in the store to ask if they needed help. And no matter what metric they use, whether you threw out the Best time and then the last time. And took the meantime, Home Depot won every category.
Congratulations.
Thank you. Thank you for raising that. I actually saw that video. We're very proud. We're very proud of
Good morning. My name is Doctor. Albert Fallow. I'm a dentist in the area, but I've always admired The company, my father's been employed with Home Depot and I got stock early and someone shared that with me in college that I needed to start This is a very great opportunity just to be here. My statement is more of a comment.
I'm just excited to be a part of Such a phenomenal movement. And as an entrepreneur, I don't know, I would love to hook up with a member of the management team that Might be able to just give me some golden nuggets just as a private practice dentist, but I'm just excited to be here and I want to attribute you guys and give you The attributes were doing such a phenomenal job with a great company. And I'm so glad that someone told me early in life to start investing in you guys with that company.
Well, thank you very much for that comment. We do have our management team here and I'm sure they'd be thrilled to talk with you. Very excited that we have one of our youngest shareholders If he's still here, somebody was describing, oh, he's at the mic. This is that's such a perfect you're following that so perfectly. Thank you very much.
All right. Thank you, sir.
Yes.
My name is Everett. And I was just wondering if The Home Depot is going to get new models of the things that they sell.
So, Everett, First off, thank you for investing your money in The Home Depot and I hope you'll be up. I hope you'll be up at the microphone many a couple of decades from now explaining what a great decision that was. And I will assure you that we spend a great deal of time, all the time thinking Blake. Innovative new products and new models to be putting in the store. Thank you very much.
Yes, sir. Good morning. My name is Gary Salmaha. My wife and I have been Home Depot stockholders for a number of years, not quite as many years as we should have been, but we are glad to be stockholders. I have two questions.
One is, what is the status of efforts by labor unions to organize employees Of the Home Depot around the country and elsewhere. And also what efforts is management making to Preclude the need for employees to join unions.
No. Thank you very much for the comment, Gary, we spend a great deal of time as you could probably tell from some of the other questions here focused on taking care of our associates. We are very proud. I'll give One small interesting fact. We are very proud of the fact we have a program called success sharing, which is a Blake.
Blight. That compares to an amount that would have been $25,000,000 in 2,006. So we are very focused In making sure that our associates know how much they are appreciated, how important they are to the success of this company and There would never be a need to contact the union because in fact the union is not going to do anything for them.
Thank you. But in terms of the status of efforts by labor organizations to unionize Home Depot employees, what's the latest with that?
So I would say on a constant basis, there's small activity in different areas, But there isn't I mean, we are I think we are recognized by our associates, recognized by those outside the company as a company that does a great job Taking care of its associates, so it isn't a major issue with us. Thank you. Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Blake. My name is Kevin Davis. I was wondering if there were any Efforts being conducted by The Home Depot currently to address the tragedy that happened in Moore Oklahoma recently if there were any Certain efforts to ensure I'm sure there are. I just wondered if there were anything.
No, yes, sir. And thank you for raising that. We're doing a number of things as a company and our associates. We have a store in Moore, Oklahoma. The store is open 24 Blake.
They've run they're very if you saw new segments, I would say we are Blake. Blight. For the company, our foundation has donated $1,000,000 to help in the disaster relief. This is something that unfortunately we are very used to doing is responding to disasters. We take that Very seriously as part of our the culture of our business to be there when people are most in need.
Thank you. Good morning, sir. Yes, sir. My name is Robert Chandler and I've been a stockholder For Home Depot since 1984. I saw the young man come back here and I thought I'll relate a little story.
I have 7 grandchildren. My oldest grandchild at Christmas time and birthday, he would be sitting in the floor At 1 or 2 years old and had so many toys, he didn't know what they were. In a week or 2, most of them were broken or missing. So I started giving each of my grandchildren $100 in Home Depot Stock on birthdays and Christmas and later I raised that, but not a lot. I raised it as 200.
The oldest grandchild when he got ready to buy his first house, he paid his down payment with his Home Depot stock.
That's great. What a great story.
The next granddaughter, when she Graduated from college, she bought her a new car. So and the others continue to call me, Granddad, how much do I
I think Everett's thinking about his boat as you talk.
So I have another question. I have a question that might be too much information for most But my hearing ain't better than what that and I couldn't hear what you said. I've been tracking Home Depot stock For many years and I was just sure that you guys were going to split since you were buying back stock and the Dividend raised and the stock value was trading over 81 yesterday and that's where they used to split frequently. Did you say You were not going to split.
Your hearing was accurate. No, we are not going to split. And I would just comment that Obviously, mathematically, no value is added in the split. And as we've seen, companies like Apple and others have shown That's not necessary for creation of shareholder value.
So Well, it wouldn't increase the value unless The stock went up. The stock hopefully will go up either way. And I have another question. Yes, sir. There's about Three different stores and honestly I don't remember which one it was that I was in and they had taken down the big signs in the aisle As you enter the store, it said tools, hardware, so and so.
And they put them on the aisle itself and smaller kind of like your Home Depot sign I can't figure out why that was because you could walk in and look All the way down each way and tell what aisle you want to go to. You can't do that now. And I mentioned to some of the employees and said, we wish they were put back It saves our customers from having to chase us down and find out what where our item is located. Well, Thank you
for the feedback. Actually, we experiment a great deal on our Signage and different looks of our stores to try to get some to try to constantly improve. And I suspect that that was one of those experiments in that space. Well, like I said,
you could stand in the front aisle and see every one of those signs. Right. But when they put it on the end of the aisle, you had to walk closer to the aisle to see it because it was being blocked. Thank you. It's great to
get your feedback. Thank Thank you very much. Thank you. Yes, sir. I
am Frank Bradford, I'm a shareholder as well, but probably not to the extent of a lot of people here. My story would be that in 1992, my mother gave me $1,000 I had a 13 year old daughter. I put the 1,000 into Home Depot, 20 shares. Today, it's 117 worth about Probably 9,000, 8,000, 9000. So I compliment you also.
I refer to myself as a poor man's Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett very, Very light, but Home Depot has served me well, being a buy and holder. And I remember when it
Well, thank you for staying with us, Mr. Bradford. Appreciate it.
I'll be around. My daughter might eventually get some of what I have, but I
ain't giving it up yet.
Thank you very much. Thank you for your comments. Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you all very much.
Thank you for taking your