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Amid a surge in demand for home improvement products as do-it-yourselfers tackle more projects at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, retailers The Home Depot and Lowe’s are responding with expansion aimed to ensure rapid product delivery and pick-up options.
Both companies announced major supply chain network expansion plans in the first half of August. In early August, Home Depot said it will open three new distribution centers in its home state of Georgia over the next 18 months. The facilities will cater to the growing demand for flexible delivery and pick-up options for its contractor customers and DIY customers.
The largest new Home Depot facility will be a 657,600-square-foot distribution center in Locust Grove, about 37 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta, the company’s headquarters city. It will serve replenishment operations for Home Depot’s stores in the Southeast U.S.
A new Home Depot “flatbed delivery center” is expected to open in 2021 in Stonecrest, about 20 miles east of Atlanta. It will offer same-day and next-day delivery of bulk and oversized orders to customers. The third facility will be a fulfillment center in East Point, a southwest Atlanta suburb, that will open in 2021 and offer same- and next-day delivery of popular items purchased by institutional business customers.
The Home Depot news follows its 2017 announcement of a $1.2 billion investment in its distribution network when the company said it would add about 150 supply chain facilities worldwide.
Not to be outdone, Lowe’s Companies announced a similar supply chain network expansion weeks later. The Mooresville, North Carolina, retailer said that over the next 18 months, it will open 50 cross-dock terminals, seven bulk distribution centers, and four e-commerce fulfillment centers.
The first stage of the expansion will be a West Coast e-commerce fulfillment center in Mira Loma, California, in October of this year that will serve to offer faster direct shipping options to consumers and ensure two-day delivery to almost 100% of the company’s customers nationwide. It will be Lowe’s second such facility, following one that opened two years earlier in Nashville, Tennessee. Lowe’s said it will also open 20 cross-dock terminals in the second half of 2020.
Lowe’s noted that the new expansion builds upon similar activity over the past 18 months that include the opening of more than 13 different supply chain facilities across the U.S. in major consumer markets, and the company’s five-year, $1.7 billion network expansion plan that it announced in 2018.
Image Credit: Mike Mozart / Flickr
