The Home Depot, Inc.
Home Improvement RetailFounded 1978- Updated July 2025
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Last reviewed: July 2025
CorpDigest
The Home Depot, Inc.
Company History
Founded 1978 in Atlanta, Georgia
Last reviewed: 2025-07-15 · By Swet Parvadiya
It worked beyond even the founders' most optimistic projections. Founded in 1978 in Atlanta by Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, and Pat Farrah, the company pioneered the big-box retail model in the home improvement category and has grown into one of America's most iconic consumer businesses. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia — the city where it was founded — Home Depot remains deeply connected to its Southern roots while operating a genuinely national business. The company's associates, store managers, and district leadership are drawn from communities across the country, and the company's culture of customer service and associate empowerment, established by founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, continues to distinguish its in-store experience from competitors.
But that simplification understates both the intensity of the HD-versus-Lowe's competition and the emerging competitive pressures arriving from adjacent categories that did not exist when Home Depot was founded. The origin of The Home Depot is inseparable from one of the most dramatic acts of corporate spite in American business history. The two men, sitting together in the aftermath of their termination, began sketching the outlines of what would become the world's most successful home improvement retail concept. The original Home Depot stores opened in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 22, 1979, in two locations: a former Treasure Island discount store space in Doraville and a location on Memorial Drive.
The four founders brought complementary skills that proved essential in the chaotic early months: Marcus was the visionary and salesman, Blank was the financial and operational backbone, Farrah was the merchant, and Brill was the numbers man who kept the enterprise from running aground. The story of those empty cans has become part of Home Depot mythology — a reminder that the most successful retail concept in American home improvement history launched with warehouses partially filled with props.
Bernie Marcus is the co-founder and first chief executive of The Home Depot, Inc., widely recognized as one of the transformative figures in American retail history. Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1929, Marcus developed his retail philosophy through years in the hardware and home improvement industry, including his tenure as CEO of Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers. His central conviction—that ordinary homeowners could be empowered to tackle ambitious renovation projects if given the right products, prices, and expertise—drove every aspect of Home Depot's founding design. Under his leadership from 1978 to 2000, Home Depot became one of the fastest-growing companies in American corporate history, expanding from two Atlanta stores to a national retail phenomenon. After retiring from active management, Marcus remained a prominent philanthropist, donating hundreds of millions of dollars to institutions including the Georgia Aquarium and the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta. He is the author, with Arthur Blank, of the memoir Built from Scratch, which remains one of the most widely read accounts of entrepreneurial retail success in America.
Arthur Blank is the co-founder of The Home Depot, Inc. And a two-time entrepreneurial success story who built one of America's most beloved sports franchises after departing the company he helped create. A native of Queens, New York, Blank brought financial discipline and operational rigor to Home Depot's founding team, serving as the critical counterweight to Bernie Marcus's visionary salesmanship. As CFO and later president of the company from 1978 to 2001, Blank oversaw the financial architecture that allowed Home Depot to grow rapidly without losing control of its balance sheet—a challenge that defeated many rapid-growth retailers of the era. After leaving Home Depot, Blank purchased the Atlanta Falcons NFL franchise in 2002 and has since invested hundreds of millions of dollars in stadium development, youth sports programs, and community development in the Atlanta metropolitan area. He is also a co-owner of Atlanta United FC of Major League Soccer. Blank's philanthropic work through the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation has distributed more than $600 million to organizations focused on youth development, education, and community enrichment.
Ron Brill served as one of the four original co-founders of The Home Depot and its first chief financial officer, providing the financial management infrastructure that allowed the company to survive its precarious early years and scale into one of America's most successful retailers. Brill's accounting background and financial discipline were essential during a founding period when the company frequently operated near the edge of its available capital, requiring careful cash management and supplier relationship management to maintain operations while investing in growth. His contribution to building Home Depot's early financial control systems—inventory tracking, accounts payable management, and financial reporting—established the operational backbone on which the company's extraordinary growth trajectory was built. Brill later transitioned to a board role, continuing to contribute institutional knowledge and financial oversight as the company matured from a startup into a publicly traded company.
Pat Farrah was the fourth co-founder of The Home Depot, functioning as the company's original chief merchandising officer and the architect of the product strategy that made Home Depot stores feel genuinely different from any retail experience available to American consumers in 1979. Farrah's background in retail merchandising, developed alongside Bernie Marcus at Handy Dan, gave him a sophisticated understanding of how merchandise selection, pricing, and display worked together to create customer value and operational profitability. His sourcing creativity—his ability to find quality merchandise at prices that supported Home Depot's everyday low price promise—was particularly critical during the capital-constrained early years when the company could not afford to stock its large store formats with full-price inventory. Farrah's merchandising philosophy, which emphasized breadth of selection combined with depth in high-velocity categories, established the store model that Home Depot has maintained, in evolved form, for 46 years.
The original two Home Depot stores open on June 22, 1979, in Doraville and on Memorial Drive in Atlanta, Georgia. Funded with approximately $2 million from investors assembled by Ken Langone, the stores feature the warehouse format, everyday low pricing, and associate expertise model that would define the company for decades.
Home Depot completes its initial public offering on the NASDAQ exchange in September 1981, raising approximately $4.1 million at $12 per share. The capital infusion allows the company to accelerate its store opening program and address the inventory and working capital constraints that had limited growth in the founding years.
Rapid growth to approximately 19 stores reveals significant operational weaknesses in inventory management, supply chain infrastructure, and management systems. The company undertakes a systematic operational improvement program, bringing in experienced retail executives and investing in technology to create the scalable infrastructure needed for sustainable expansion.
Home Depot opens its 100th store, crossing a symbolic milestone that reflects a decade of sustained geographic expansion from the original Atlanta market to markets across the Southeast, Southwest, and Northeast United States. Annual revenues have grown to approximately $1.4 billion.
Home Depot makes its first international expansion, entering Canada through the acquisition of Aikenhead's Home Improvement Warehouse, a Canadian big-box home improvement chain. The Canadian market proves highly receptive to the Home Depot format, and the company grows its Canadian presence to approximately 180 stores.
Home Depot is added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1999, replacing Sears, Roebuck and Co. The inclusion is a symbolic and practical recognition of the company's position as one of the most important businesses in the American economy, with annual revenues approaching $20 billion.
Robert Nardelli, a former General Electric executive, becomes CEO of Home Depot following the retirement of co-founder Bernie Marcus. Nardelli's tenure, which extends to 2007, brings operational and financial discipline but also controversy over executive compensation and a perceived deterioration in the company's customer service culture.
Bob Nardelli resigns amid shareholder pressure over his compensation package and concerns about the company's strategic direction. Frank Blake, a former GE colleague and Home Depot vice chairman, assumes the CEO role and begins a recovery program focused on restoring customer service standards and reinvesting in the store experience.
Home Depot discloses a massive data breach in which hackers stole payment card data from approximately 56 million customers, one of the largest retail data breaches in history at the time. The breach costs the company approximately $298 million in settlements, legal fees, and security investments, and triggers a fundamental overhaul of the company's cybersecurity infrastructure.
The COVID-19 pandemic generates an extraordinary surge in home improvement spending as millions of Americans redirect discretionary income toward their homes during lockdowns. Home Depot's fiscal 2020 revenues increase approximately 19.9 percent year-over-year to $132.1 billion, with comparable store sales rising 19.7 percent—the strongest organic growth performance in the company's modern history.
Ted Decker, a 22-year Home Depot veteran who served as president and chief operating officer, becomes CEO in March 2022. Craig Menear, who had led the company since 2014, transitions to executive chairman. Decker inherits a post-pandemic business facing normalizing demand and elevated interest rates but articulates an ambitious Pro ecosystem strategy centered on deepening relationships with professional contractors.
Home Depot completes the acquisition of SRS Distribution, the second-largest specialty trade distributor in the United States, in June 2024 for approximately $18.25 billion—the largest acquisition in company history. SRS operates roughly 760 distribution locations serving professional roofing, pool, and landscape contractors, dramatically expanding Home Depot's distribution reach to professional customers who require job-site delivery.
SRS Distribution is the second-largest specialty trade distributor in the United States, operating approximately 760 branch locations serving professional roofing, pool, and landscape contractors under brands including Roofing Supply Group. The acquisition was designed to dramatically expand Home Depot's ability to serve professional contractors through job-site delivery—a service model that is fundamentally different from store-based retail and that addresses the supply needs of trades that require bulk material delivery to construction sites. Management identified SRS as the most compelling available asset for building out the Pro ecosystem strategy that CEO Ted Decker had prioritized since assuming leadership.
Interline Brands was a distributor of maintenance, repair, and operations products serving property managers, building maintenance professionals, and facility managers through a catalog and direct sales model. The acquisition was designed to extend Home Depot's reach into the multifamily residential and commercial building maintenance markets—a professional customer segment that was purchasing MRO supplies through distribution channels that were entirely separate from Home Depot's store network. Interline had approximately $1.5 billion in annual revenue at the time of acquisition.
Home Depot acquired certain assets related to The Company Store, a direct-to-consumer home textiles brand offering bedding, bath, and related soft furnishings. The acquisition was intended to expand Home Depot's presence in the online home furnishings and soft goods category, where competitors including Wayfair were growing rapidly. The Company Store had an established direct-to-consumer digital presence and a customer base oriented toward home textiles and décor.
Compact Power Equipment was a tool and equipment rental service provider operating within Home Depot stores and serving as the operational backbone of the in-store rental program. The acquisition was designed to bring full operational control of the tool rental business in-house, eliminating the franchise and licensing arrangements that had previously governed the program and allowing Home Depot to invest in the rental offering as a direct strategic capability rather than a managed partner program.
Blinds.com was a leading online retailer of window treatments, offering custom-cut blinds, shades, and shutters through a direct-to-consumer e-commerce model. The acquisition was designed to expand Home Depot's online product assortment in the window treatments category and to accelerate its digital commerce capabilities, including the custom product ordering technology needed to efficiently process made-to-measure window covering orders at scale.