José Antonio Rodríguez has reason to be excited this year. The President and CEO of The Home Depot Mexico is in charge of a strategic plan to invest an average of 15,000 million pesos (cdm) in the next 5 years and it is that the openings do not stop.
“The first half of this year is normalizing and we are comparing ourselves to rising prices and inflation, which continue to be a challenge, but we see that inflation is already more stable in our category. And in materials like copper and steel, they’re down, it’s a year of normalization, the first half will be more complex, but the second half is fine with us,” he said, in an interview with Forbes MexicoJose A. Rodriguez.
in 2024 alone, The Home Depot will invest 3,700 million pesos in the Mexican Republic open 5 stores in Mexico City, Cancun, Mexicali, Hermosillo and Monterrey. This investment is 2.2% higher than that made in 2022, which amounted to 3,620 million pesos (mdp).
The resources “are intended to strengthen the interconnected experience (between consumers and the store) and to continue to move towards the supply chain in last mile deliveries and the update of certain technological platforms to exploit the centers distribution”, explains Pepe, as his friends and collaborators call him.
At present, the the company has 134 stores in Mexico and the goal is to add 150 units in the next 5 years.
Read: The Orange Apron Army wants more stores
The investment in the next five years amounts to 3,850 million pesos, to open 7 stores in Mexico City; Today, it has 10 units in the country’s capital and 24 in the metropolitan area. Today the company inaugurates a new site in the Polanco region, which represents an investment of 200 million pesos, to continue its commitment in the center of the country and, in fact, the investment has almost doubled.
Moreover, the so-called “orange army” already has nearly 19,500 collaborators, including 1,200 in Mexico City.
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Nearshoring Boosts Home Depot Investment Plans
Nearshoring and the construction deficit in Mexico continue to guide the company’s investment plans.
The main challenge for the company is no different from the rest of the companies in Mexico: the high levels of inflation and, consequently, the increase in inflation rates by the Bank of Mexico.
In this sense, the supply chain has gained in relevance. And it is that between 80 and 85% of the 35,000 products offered by the chain correspond to local producers.
However, the supply chain that comes from the United States has normalized its costs, compared to last year. “The containers were very expensive,” explains the Mexican executive, referring to the situation they were experiencing in 2022.
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