Spring is usually one of the busiest times of the year for home improvement stores like Lowe’s. The season creates roughly 30% of annual sales on average. Spring is to Lowe’s and Home Depot what Christmas is to Macy’s. Gardening usually pick up and customers start getting ready for home renovation projects during the warmer weather. However, because of the pandemic, retail stores throughout the US have closed doors or are running on significantly lower employee strength.
Lowe’s has gone against that trend and is moving forward with it’s existing plan of hiring around 30,000 employees for the busy spring and summer seasons. Lowe’s CEO Marvin Ellison stated in a late-March interview that customers were buying cleaning products, supplies for urgent home repairs, and items for do-it-yourself (DIY) projects.
Lowe’s businesses are part recession-proof in as two-thirds of its sales come from the nondiscretionary part. Lowe’s hasn’t withdrawn or changed it’s financial guidance either. There is strong confidence among management at Lowe’s as it has recently signed up for three advertisement slots as a presenting sponsor of the NFL draft. According to Marisa Thalberg, chief marketing officer at Lowe’s, “the company had to do minimal shooting for the campaign and use a smaller film crew because of the pandemic”. Thalberg was previously the global chief brand officer at Taco Bell advertisement worked for Revlon, Estee Lauder, and Unilever Cosmetics International.
All eyes will now be on the company’s Q1 2020 earnings call, scheduled to take place on 20th May 2020. The company had shared in February that it expects same-store growth of 3% to 3.5% during fiscal 2020 and estimated earnings each share to be in the $6.45 to $6.65 range. Shares of Lowe’s Companies, Inc. closed at $114.23 on May 8, down 9.05% for the month.
