Home Depot 2010 Annual Report Download - page 7

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, state of the economy, state of
the residential construction, housing and home improvement markets, state of the credit markets, including
mortgages, home equity loans and consumer credit, inventory and in-stock positions, commodity price inflation
and deflation, implementation of store and supply chain 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 accounting charges, the planned
recapitalization of the Company and the timing of its completion, the ability to issue debt securities on terms and
at rates acceptable to us, store openings and closures and financial outlook.
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. These 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. These 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 these
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 January 30, 2011 (“fiscal 2010”). 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 2010, we had 2,248 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, Canada, China and Mexico. When we refer to “The Home Depot,” the “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our” in
this report, we are referring to The Home Depot, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries.
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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