ATLANTA–The Home Depot will exit its Expo Design Center spin-off business and restructure its support functions, resulting in the elimination of 7,000 jobs or about two percent of the retailer’s total workforce.
The upscale, 34-unit Expo Design Center Stores have not performed well financially and won’t anytime soon, the retailer said, in a statement. Even during the housing boom, it was not a strong business, the company said.
Over the next two months, the company will also close five Yardbirds stores, two Design Center stores and a bath remodeling business known as HD Bath, which has seven locations. These steps will cut about 5,000 associates, their support functions and distribution centers.
Home Depot is also restructuring support functions to better align its cost structure with the current economic environment. This includes continuing its shift to a region- and district- based support model in various field functions and reducing head count in administrative functions in its store support centers, resulting in the reduction of about 2,000 associates and jobs and a 10 percent reduction in Home Depot’s officer ranks. They will not impact any positions in Home Depot stores.
Home Depot is also implementing a salary freeze among all officers.
The retailer expects to incur a pre-tax charge of approximately $532 million from these moves.