Home Depot 2008 Annual Report Download - page 6

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT PURSUANT TO THE
PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995
Certain statements regarding our future performance constitute “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may relate to, among other things, the demand for
our products and services, net sales growth, comparable store sales, impact of cannibalization, store openings and
closures, state of the economy, state of the residential construction, housing and home improvement markets, commodity
price inflation and deflation, implementation of store initiatives, continuation of reinvestment plans, net earnings
performance, earnings per share, stock-based compensation expense, capital allocation and expenditures, liquidity, the
effect of adopting certain accounting standards, return on invested capital, management of our purchasing or customer
credit policies, the effect of charges, the planned recapitalization of the Company, timing of the completion of such
recapitalization and the ability to issue debt securities on terms and at rates acceptable to us.
Forward-looking statements are based on currently available information and our current assumptions, expectations and
projections about future events. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Such
statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to future events, risks and uncertainties — many of
which are beyond our control or are currently unknown to us — as well as potentially inaccurate assumptions that could
cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are
not limited to, those described in Item 1A, “Risk Factors.”
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we do not undertake to update such statements
other than as required by law. You are advised, however, to review any further disclosures we make on related subjects in
our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
PART I
Item 1. Business.
Introduction
The Home Depot, Inc. is the world’s largest home improvement retailer based on Net Sales for the fiscal year ended
February 1, 2009 (“fiscal 2008”). The Home Depot stores sell a wide assortment of building materials, home improvement
and lawn and garden products and provide a number of services. The Home Depot stores average approximately
105,000 square feet of enclosed space, with approximately 24,000 additional square feet of outside garden area. As of the
end of fiscal 2008, we had 2,233 The Home Depot stores located throughout the United States including the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the territories of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam (“U.S.”), Canada, China and
Mexico. In addition, at the end of fiscal 2008, the Company operated 34 EXPO Design Center stores, two THD Design
Center stores and five Yardbirds stores. On January 26, 2009, we announced the planned closing of our EXPO, THD
Design Center and Yardbirds stores as part of our focus on our core business.
The Home Depot, Inc. is a Delaware corporation that was incorporated in 1978. Our Store Support Center (corporate
office) is located at 2455 Paces Ferry Road, N.W., Atlanta, Georgia 30339. Our telephone number is [phone].
We maintain an Internet website at www.homedepot.com. We make available on our website, free of charge, our Annual
Reports to shareholders, Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K,
Proxy Statements and Forms 3, 4 and 5 as soon as reasonably practicable after filing such documents with, or furnishing
such documents to, the SEC.
We include our website addresses throughout this filing only as textual references. The information contained on our
websites is not incorporated by reference into this report.
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