While it is true that some chains have "sister stores" like Olive Garden and Red Lobster, it is false that there is any direct relationship between Lowe's and Home Depot management.
No, Lowes and Home Depot are not owned by the same company.
Lowes Inc. is a publicly-traded company without a majority shareholder, and Walmart owns no shares in the company. Walmart does, however, own several other discount chains and brands across the US and beyond.
The Lowe's and Home Depot Legend
It was a single home improvement chain owned by a married couple. When the two had a bitter divorce, they turned their home improvement chain into two different home improvement chains.
Lowe's (LOW) Ownership Overview
The ownership structure of Lowe's (LOW) stock is a mix of institutional, retail, and individual investors. Approximately 42.67% of the company's stock is owned by Institutional Investors, 0.10% is owned by Insiders, and 57.23% is owned by Public Companies and Individual Investors.
On February 3, 2016, Rona announced that it had accepted an offer to be acquired by Lowe's for CDN$3.2 billion, pending regulatory and shareholder approval. The division would remain under the leadership of Sylvain Prud'homme, but would be operated out of Rona's headquarters in Boucherville.
Home Depot is mainly owned by institutional investors, who own around 70% of shares. The largest shareholders in December 2023 were: The Vanguard Group (9.49%) BlackRock (7.15%)
Lowes was founded in 1946, The Home Depot in 1978. Despite that 32 year head start, Lowes has consistently lost ground to The Home Depot for several years, now running a distant second nationally in the big box hardware category.
For the savvy business owner looking to get established in this space, owning a The Home Depot franchise might seem like a viable option to pursue. However, the company doesn't offer franchises; all locations are company-owned.
Half of Lowe's locations have a Home Depot within 2.23 miles and 77% have a location within 10-miles. This suggests that either (1) the brands see themselves as going after different customers in the same market or (2) they compete head-to-head for the same customers in the same places.
British-based private equity firm BC Partners, which acquired PetSmart for about $8.7 billion in 2015 and took it private, remains the company's majority shareholder and will retain control of the board, alongside co-investors GIC and the PetSmart management team.
Contrary to some beliefs, Walmart does not own Wayfair. There was speculation in the late 2010s about a possible acquisition of Wayfair by Walmart, but no such deal ever materialized. Both companies operate independently, with no ownership ties.
Dollar Tree owns Family Dollar*, but neither of which are owned by WalMart. WalMart owns Vudu, realty company and some online flops like Jet(.com) as well as some other companies not worth mentioning since they are not popular.
Open sharing preferences. Between 2020 and 2023, Home Depot experienced significant growth, increasing its total sales from $132.1 billion to $152.7 billion. In contrast, Lowe's saw a decline, dropping from $89.6 billion to $86.4 billion. As a result, Home Depot's market share increased from 60% to 64% in 2023.
Lowes is not owned by walmart. It is a publicly traded company under the letters LOW. It would be listed as a subsidiary of walmart and it is not.
As the world's first and second-largest home improvement retailers, Home Depot and Lowe's share many similarities. They compete for a shared customer base across the U.S. and Canada.
Home Depot's major acquisition is boosting the business as home improvement demand remains slow. The retailer announced in March that it was acquiring SRS Distribution, a company that sells supplies to roofing, pool and landscaping professionals, for $18.25 billion and closed the deal in June.
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Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus cofounded Home Depot in 1978 after being fired from their jobs at a regional hardware store. Blank retired as Home Depot's co-chairman in 2001 and bought the NFL's Atlanta Falcons for $545 million in 2002 (his stake's now worth $2.5 billion).
Many major brands are available at both stores, but each also has exclusive products and brands. For instance, Home Depot offers exclusive access to Behr paint, while Lowe's offers Sherwin-Williams. Some tool brands are exclusive to each store as well.
Menards is the second oldest of the companies, having opened its first lumber store in 1964, and is still privately owned by the Menard family. Read Menards 360 here. And Home Depot, the biggest and youngest of the three, was an ambitious upstart in in the 1970s.
Lowe's Home Improvement is most highly rated for Compensation and benefits and The Home Depot is most highly rated for Culture. Learn more, read reviews and see open jobs.
The Lowe's story began in North Carolina when Wilkes County farmer L.S. Lowe decided to start his own store, opening Lowe's North Wilkesboro Hardware in 1921.
Home Depot's partnership with Walmart is a component of the retailer's comprehensive delivery network. The retailer's network is designed to offer quick and reliable delivery to both pro and DIY customers.
After settling on “Bad Bernie's,” an early investor, Marjorie Buckley, got them to change the name after she disliked it strongly. She suggested the name “The Home Depot” instead and that name has stuck to this day.