Less of Lowe’s
Chain to close all its Orchard Supply Hardware stores.
Orchard Supply Hardware, we hardly knew you.
Less than two years after opening seven stores in Broward and Palm Beach counties, Lowe’s Cos. has decided to shut down all 99 of its Orchard Supply Hardware stores in Florida, California and Oregon, the company said Wednesday.
In its second-quarter sales and earnings results news release, the company said it came to the decision on Aug. 17 “in order to focus on its core home improvement business.”
The move came as a store in the Orlando area was under construction, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
The company called the move a “strategic reassessment” of Orchard Supply, “which led to long-lived asset impairments and discontinued projects during the second quarter.”
“While it was a necessary business decision to exit Orchard Supply Hardware, decisions that impact our people are never easy,” said Lowe’s president and CEO Marvin R. Ellison. “We will be providing outplacement services for impacted associates, and they will be given priority status if they choose to apply for other Lowe’s positions.”
The store opened its first South Florida store on North Federal Highway, just south of Oakland Park Boulevard, in Fort Lauderdale in October 2016 amid an ambitious Florida expansion plan.
That opening was quickly followed by six others in the area, including on North University Drive in Coral Springs, West Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach, South Federal Highway in Deerfield Beach, West State Road 84 in Sunrise, Congress Avenue in Boynton Beach and Linton
Boulevard in Delray Beach.
The chain’s website shows four other Florida locations: two in the Orlando area and two in Naples.
The chain was described in news releases about the openings as a “lifestyle hardware and garden supply destination” that was designed to be “easy to navigate and fun to shop.”
The brand was founded as a cooperative in San Jose, Calif., by 30 Depression-era farmers who came together to spend money on tools. Later, the co-op expanded into a family-owned chain and in 1996 was bought by Sears.
Lowe’s purchased it out
of bankruptcy in 2013, and three years later, it had about 70 stores in California and Oregon.
While the West Coast stores sported a vintage style that played to a “Whole Foods of hardware” reputation, the Florida stores were developed with brighter colors and more Floridaspecific products.
About a quarter of the size of a typical Lowe’s store, the brand aimed to serve the “inspired homeowner” who didn’t mind tackling human-sized projects like applying a fresh coat of paint or repairing a leaky faucet, its South Florida district manager said in 2016.
Each store employed about 45 people, with more than half of the positions being full-time, salaried and eligible for benefits.
Lowe’s expects to close all of the stores, as well as their distribution facility in Tracy, Calif., by the end of the year. Hilco Merchant Services has been secured to help manage the process, which will include store closing sales, the earnings report said.
Lowe’s earnings release said it took a pre-tax charge of $230 million in its second quarter ending Aug. 3 and expects additional pre-tax costs of $390 million to $475 million, related to lease obligations, accelerated depreciation and amortization, and severance obligations in the second half of fiscal 2018.