Home Depot 2013 Annual Report Download - page 9

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temporary basis. To attract and retain qualified personnel, we seek to maintain competitive salary and wage levels in each
market we serve. We measure associate satisfaction regularly, and we believe that our employee relations are very good.
Product Authority
Our Products. Our product portfolio strategy is aimed at delivering innovation, assortment and value. A typical The Home
Depot store stocks approximately 30,000 to 40,000 products during the year, including both national brand name and
proprietary items. We also offer over 700,000 products through our Home Depot and Home Decorators Collection websites.
To enhance our merchandising capabilities, we continued to make improvements to our information technology tools in fiscal
2013 to give our merchants and suppliers greater visibility into category and item performance and to increase the
localization of our stores – both in terms of product assortment and space allocation. We also continued to use the resources
of BlackLocus, Inc., a data analytics and pricing firm we acquired in fiscal 2012, to help us make focused merchandising
decisions based on complex sets of large amounts of data.
In fiscal 2013, we introduced a number of innovative and distinctive products to our customers at attractive values. Examples
of these new products include LED light bulbs from Cree®; Soft Spring Carpet from Mohawk®; customizable patio furniture
from Plantation Patterns Patio®; wifi-enabled thermostats from Nest® and Honeywell®; Behr Marquee® exterior paint with a
one coat coverage guarantee and ability to repel rain within 60 minutes of application; and Double Duty Sawzall Blades from
Milwaukee®.
During fiscal 2013, we offered a number of proprietary and exclusive brands across a wide range of departments, such as
Husky® hand tools and tool storage; Defiant® door locks; Everbilt® hardware fasteners; Hampton Bay® lighting and fans;
Vigoro® lawn care products; RIDGID® and Ryobi® power tools; Glacier Bay® bath fixtures; HDX® tools, hardware, storage
and cleaning products; and CE Tech® audio-visual accessories. We will continue to assess strategic alliances and relationships
with suppliers and opportunities to expand the range of products available under brand names that are exclusive to The Home
Depot.
We maintain a global sourcing program to obtain high-quality and innovative products directly from manufacturers around
the world. In fiscal 2013, in addition to our sourcing operations at our Store Support Center in Atlanta, Georgia, we
maintained three sourcing offices located in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Shenzhen and Dalian, as well as sourcing offices
in Gurgaon, India; Rome, Italy; Monterrey, Mexico and Toronto, Canada.
The percentage of Net Sales of each of our major product categories (and related services) for each of the last three fiscal
years is presented in Note 1 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this report. Net Sales outside the U.S. were
$8.5 billion, $8.4 billion and $8.0 billion for fiscal 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively. Long-lived assets outside the
U.S. totaled $2.9 billion, $3.1 billion and $3.1 billion as of February 2, 2014, February 3, 2013 and January 29, 2012,
respectively.
Quality Assurance. We have both quality assurance and engineering resources that are dedicated to overseeing the quality
of all of our products, whether they are directly imported, locally or globally sourced or proprietary branded products.
Through these programs, we have established criteria for supplier and product performance that are designed to ensure that
our products comply with applicable international, federal, state and local safety, quality and performance standards. We also
have a Supplier Social and Environmental Responsibility Program designed to ensure that our suppliers adhere to the highest
standards of social and environmental responsibility.
Energy Saving Products and Programs. Over 20 years ago, The Home Depot made a commitment to sustainability and
doing the right thing for our shareholders, our customers and the environment. We support sustainability on a daily basis by
providing consumers with a selection of environmentally preferred products that help them save money, energy and water.
Through our Eco Options® Program introduced in 2007, we have created product categories that allow consumers to easily
identify products that meet specifications for energy efficiency, water conservation, healthy home, clean air and sustainable
forestry. As of the end of fiscal 2013, our Eco Options® Program included over 7,700 products. Through this program, we sell
products such as ENERGY STAR® certified appliances, compact fluorescent light ("CFL") and LED light bulbs, wifi-
programmable thermostats, tankless water heaters and other products, enabling our customers to save on their utility bills. We
estimate that in fiscal 2013 we have helped consumers save nearly $770 million in electricity costs through sales of ENERGY
STAR® certified products as well as over 42 billion gallons of water and over $350 million in water bills through the sales of
WaterSense®-labeled bath faucets, showerheads, aerators, toilets and irrigation controllers. Additionally, by converting all of
our consumer interior paints to "Low VOC" or "Zero VOC," we eliminated over 27 million pounds of volatile organic
compound emissions in fiscal 2013.