BUILDINGONLINE PRESENTS: TOP 10 RETAILERS LISTING Top 500 home improvement retailers' sales grew 7.2 percent in 1995

NEW YORK--May 16, 1996--The "National Home Center News" Top 500 dealers improved their sales by 7.2 percent to $65.22 billion in 1995.

That percentage increase is about two-fifths the percentage gain achieved by these 500 large home improvement retailers in 1994. Nevertheless, the NHCN Top 500 far outpaced industry sales growth as a whole.

Sales of home improvement products by all retailers carrying this merchandise -- including home centers, lumberyards, hardware stores, paint stores, lawn and garden centers, discount stores, general merchandise stores and membership warehouse clubs -- hit $132.17 billion, a 1.8 percent annual gain over 1994, according to The NHCN Top 500 report which was published May 20, 1996.

Home centers and lumber and building materials outlets, specifically, expanded their sales by just 2.8 percent to $88.78 billion of that total market. However, the industry's 25 largest retailers, whose revenues grew by a robust 9.6 percent to $45.75 billion, captured 35 percent of the total market and appeared to exact their toll primarily on specialty dealers.

Hardware stores and lawn and garden outlets fared poorly last year, as their aggregate revenues dipped by 3.5 percent and 7.9 percent, respectively. These stores were hammered by chain competition that moved across the country like a 1990s version of Manifest Destiny.

"National Home Center News" is the leading international news magazine for the home improvement industry. It is published biweekly by Lebhar-Friedman Inc., New York.

For more information, contact Don Longo, editor, 212-756-5107 or drop us an eMail.

                                           1995                Number
   Rank                                    Sales     Percent   of
1995  1994    Company Headquarters       (in $mil.)  Change    Stores

  1     1   Home Depot, Atlanta           15,470.4    24.0     423 

  2     2   Lowe's Cos., North Wilkesboro,
             N.C.                          7,075.4    15.8     365 

  3     6   Menard, Eau Claire, Wis.       2,700.0    17.4     115

  4     4   Payless Cashways, Kansas City,
             Mo.                           2,685.0    -1.4     200

  5     3   Builders Square, San Antonio   2,639.0   -10.6     174

  6     5   Hechinger, Landover, Md.       2,255.6    -8.1     118

  7     7   HomeBase, Irvine, Calif.       1,448.8     6.7      79

  8     8   Eighty-Four Lumber, Eighty
             Four, Pa.                     1,250.0    -2.0     375

  9     9   Wickes Lumber, Vernon Hills,
             Ill.                            972.6    -1.4     110

 10    10   Sutherland Lumber, Kansas City,
             Mo.                             920.0     2.2      85

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