There are small businesses, and there are big businesses, and really big businesses. Some of the biggest companies in today’s global economy are the giant retailers such as Home Depot, Lowe’s, and IKEA, also known as ‘big box stores’. To analyze and compare these three is interesting because both Home Depot, and Lowe’s are U.S.-based, publically traded companies, while IKEA is a European, privately-held company. In the next few paragraphs, we will look at how these companies stack up in terms of size, revenue, international reach, and history.
First, let’s take a look at who is the biggest retailer when measuring by numbers of stores and employees. Through this unit of measurement, Home Depot is the largest of the three with 2,200 stores and over 320,000 employees. Next up is Lowes with over 1,700 store locations and 235,000 employees. IKEA is last in this leg of the analysis, with over 300 stores and 125,000 employees.
In terms of annual revenue, the 3 chains shake up in their overall order a little bit with Lowes stores tallying up a whopping total of $47.2b in 2009, followed by $41.2b in 2009 for the Home Depot stores, and $28.9b in 2009 revenue for IKEA stores.
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Comparing Some of the Big Box Retailers
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