ATLANTA and SHANGHAI, China, Feb. 13 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- The Home Depot(R), the world’s largest home improvement retailer, today announced the appointment of Yves Chen as president of The Home Depot’s retail operations in China. He will report directly to Annette Verschuren, president, The Home Depot Asia and Canada.
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Yves Chen brings 19 years of global retail and management experience to his new role. Most recently, he served as the executive president of the Beijing Hualian Group, a leading Chinese retailer. Prior to that, he held a variety of executive positions in China and France with Carrefour(R) and Promodes(R), two leading French retailers. Yves holds a bachelor’s degree from the Beijing Chemical Engineering Institute, as well as a master’s degree from Ecole Nationale Superieure des Industries Chimiques and a Ph.D. from Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, both universities in Nancy, France.
"We are excited about the expertise that Yves Chen will bring to our retail operation," said Verschuren. "As a local Chinese business leader, Yves will bring invaluable insight to our operations and growth strategy. The combination of Yves and the current Home Way(R) leadership is a powerful team dedicated to serving the unique needs of Chinese consumers."
In his new position, Yves will have full responsibility for the operating and financial performance of The Home Depot’s retail operations in China. He will be responsible for integrating the newly acquired Home Way stores into The Home Depot and leading the continued growth of the Company’s retail business in China.
The Home Depot announced its acquisition of Home Way on December 13, 2006. The transaction received the necessary Chinese government regulatory approvals and closed on December 15. As a result of the acquisition, the Company now employs approximately 3,000 associates across 12 stores in six cities in China, including Tianjin, Beijing, Xi’an, Qingdao, Shenyang and Zhengzhou.
The Home Depot(R) is the world’s largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,159 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, 10 Canadian provinces, Mexico and China. Through its HD Supply(SM) businesses, The Home Depot is also one of the largest diversified wholesale distributors in the United States, with nearly 1,000 locations in the United States and Canada offering products and services for building, improving and maintaining homes, businesses and municipal infrastructures. In fiscal 2005, The Home Depot had sales of $81.5 billion and earnings of $5.8 billion. The Company employs approximately 355,000 associates and has been recognized by FORTUNE(R) magazine as the No. 1 Most Admired Specialty Retailer and the No. 13 Most Admired Corporation in America for 2006. The Home Depot’s stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange(R) (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones(R) industrial average and Standard & Poor’s(R) 500 index. HDG
