Home Depot to Layoff 500 Corporate Employees

Home Depot has notified employees at its Store Support Center in Atlanta that the company plans to layoff approximately 500 of its staff members. A company spokesperson says the cutback is a result of a tougher than usual business climate.

The Store Support Center, essentially its corporate operations, includes areas such as: information technology, human resources and marketing.

“This will not have any impact on our stores,” explains Sarah Molinari, a spokesperson for Home Depot. “The stores will continue to operate as is.”

Molinari says the cutback will allow Home Depot to continue investing in its retail presence.

“Anything we can do to streamline the support structure here, while continuing to invest in our stores is what we’re doing into 2008,” she says.

Molinari says investments into the company’s retail sector include improving customers overall shopping experience and rewarding store associates for their efforts. She also says Home Depot is looking to add store hours.

“We’ve been pretty clear with the public and our associates too, that we’re operating in a tough business environment,” Molinari says. “Performing some streamlining here with our support structure allows us to continue investing in the stores—which is our most important goal.”

Molinari says many of the company’s recent moves reflect its retail focus, including letting go of its supply business.

“Frank Blake took over as CEO in January of 2007 and right from day one he said, ‘We’re going to focus on improving the core retail business,’” she explains. “We settled on selling HD Supply, because it was no longer part of our focus on the core retail business.”

Molinari wasn’t able to share the company’s outlook, but maintains that Home Depot is focusing on a rebound.

“Once this business climate recovers, we’ll be in a much stronger position,” she says.

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