US retailer Home Depot closes last seven big stores in China

Home Depot, the world's largest home-improvement retailer, said yesterday it will close its remaining seven "big box" stores in China and focus on online sales and speciality stores.

The announcement from the Atlanta-based retailing giant came unexpectedly for hundreds of workers at the seven Home Depot stores in Tianjin, Xian, and Zhengzhou, who found the stores shut when they arrived for work in the morning. Over the past three-and-a-half years, the company had already closed 12 similar stores in China, the last of which was shut down in Beijing in January last year.

"We've learned a great deal over the last six years in China," said Frank Blake, chairman and chief executive of the company in a statement released yesterday.

The American seller of building materials and home improvement products said it will keep its two so-called "speciality outlets" - a paint and flooring store, and a home decoration shop - in Tianjin. It is also in talks with several Chinese e-commerce websites to explore selling its products online, it said.

The group embarked on an ambitious expansion plan in the mainland in 2006, and to adapt to the market, it started to offer one-stop home renovation services to local customers, although it has always followed a "do-it-yourself" business model in the US and elsewhere.

However, the innovation appears to have failed and it closed several stores due to low sales revenue over the past few years.