Lowe’s: a Structural Analysis Essay

Lowes was originally started in 1921 by Lucius S. Lowe in the town of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina and was called Lowes North Wilkesboro computer hardwargon Store. The first version of Lowes had a different product mix in that withal included notions, dry goods, horse tack, snuff, produce, and groceries. This was when it was run by Lucius S. Lowe. The melody was inherited by his daughter, compassion, when Lucius died in 1940. She in turn sold the ships society to her brother James Lowe.In that same year that Jim bought the store him and poignancys husband Carl Buchan served in World War II, during the war Ruth and her mother ran the store. After Carl was injured and honorably discharged in 1943 Jim took him on as a partner. Lowes was founded in 1946 Lowes has grown from a dwarfish hardware store to the second-largest home improvement retailer worldwide. This is when Carl Buchan took focusing over and the store started to focus primarily on hardware and mental synthesis materials. Carl Buchan later bought-out his brother-in-law and partner, James Lowe, and foreseeing the post-World War II take a craping boom.By eliminating wholesalers and relations directly with manufacturers, Lowes established a lasting reputation for utter prices. Sales began to grow over time and additional Lowes stores undefendable in neighboring towns throughout western North Carolina. In 1960, Carl Buchan died of a heart attack at age 44. His five-man executive team, which included Robert Strickland and Leonard Herring, took the comp whatever public in 1961. By 1962 Lowes operated 21 stores and reported one-year revenues of $32 million. In 1979, Lowes began trading on the New York standard Exchange (NYSELOW).During this time, U. S. housing starts soared and professional builders became Lowes loyal customers, accounting for the legal age of Lowes business. In 1982, Lowes had its first billion-dollar sales year, earning a establish profit of $25 million. Lowes stores th en reported serving a tender type of customer do-it-yourself homeowners seeking to improve the encourage of their properties. Anticipating their needs plot still accommodating contractors, Lowes began to enlarge its stores and grow its merchandise offerings.The modern Lowes began in 1994, when their new store involution consisted of only large stores, which they defined as stores with greater than 85,000 square feet of selling space. Expansion continued as Lowes undecided a new store on average every week with our 117,000-square-foot (117K) stores in the body politics larger metro commercializes and our newer 94,000-square-foot (94K) stores in the nations small to mid-sized markets. Lowes opened its first stores in Canada in December 2007 and opened its first stores in Mexico in February 2010.Lowes stores bear 40,000 products in 15 product categories ranging from appliances to tools, to paint, lumber and nursery products. Lowes has hundreds of thousands of products availab le by limited Order offering everything customers need to build, maintain, beautify and enjoy their homes. Lowes operates much than 1,745 stores in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Lowes announced on August 25, 2009, that it had entered a joint venture with the Australian retailer Woolworths to enter the Australian market with 150 big box style superstores.Trading under the scrape Masters fundament Improvement, the first store opened in Braybrook, Victoria, to tradesmen on August 31, 2011, and the general public on September 1, 2011. Today Lowes is the second largest home improvement retailer worldwide and the 7th largest retailer in the U. S. Although times have changed since Lowes first opened its doors in 1946, Lowes values have not the company remains connected to offering quality home improvement products at the lowest prices, while delivering superior customer service. Lowes major competitors include Home stock and Ace Hardware.In a functional structure the compan y maintains a CEO with a small corporate staff along with managers in organisational areas such as production, accounting, marketing, R&D, engineering and human resources. Separating the organizational areas of a company allows for specialization in each functional area. However, this musical interval can have a negative effect as it takes parley between these areas more difficult. This is the type of structure that Lowes uses today. Lowes shows comprise leadership by their low price guarantee, where they will beat any competitors price by 10% on any in stock product.Lowes also uses a differentiation strategy to separate themselves from Home Depot by trying to appeal more to women, with the thought that women make most home design decisions. It is believed within the company that Lowes stores are cleaner and that their blue and red colors are more have than Home Depots bold orange and black. They are also very customer focused by having expert employees who can develop custome rs the knowledge needed to do projects themselves, shown by their lets build something together advertisements. This is what helps to keep Lowes on top and a uniform competitor.