Home Depot bets on pros for growth
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Home Depot is leaning more heavily on contractors, specialty distribution and job-site delivery as high mortgage rates continue to suppress big homeowner remodels.
Why it matters: Tuesday's quarterly results suggest Home Depot sees contractors — not a homeowner rebound — as its clearest near-term growth engine.
Driving the news: Atlanta-based Home Depot reported first-quarter sales of $41.8 billion Tuesday, up 4.8% from a year earlier, while comparable sales rose 0.6%.
- U.S. comparable sales increased 0.4%.
- But demand is expected to remain sluggish — relatively similar to what the company saw throughout 2025, CEO Ted Decker said.
The big picture: The home improvement chain, which depends heavily on new house purchases and attractive HELOC rates to drive demand, used Tuesday's earnings call to spotlight its focus on pros.
- Home Depot sees a $700 billion opportunity serving professional customers, Decker said — adding that the Pro business "outperformed consumer yet again this quarter."
What they're saying: Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData, said professional demand has remained "somewhat better" than DIY demand as consumers pull back on larger discretionary projects.
- Property owners are prioritizing essential repairs over major remodels as deferred maintenance reaches "a tipping point," Kade Thomas, CEO of Cerv Property Solutions, said.
Between the lines: The split increasingly looks like a repair vs. remodel economy: homeowners are delaying dream projects, but contractors are still busy handling work consumers can't easily avoid.
- Home Depot recently closed its acquisition of Mingledorff's, an HVAC distributor serving the Southeast.
- Executives said the HVAC expansion opens up another $100 billion market opportunity for Home Depot — and one less dependent on new construction.
- Home Depot said it now operates more than 1,300 branches through SRS Distribution — the roofing, landscaping and specialty supply company it acquired in 2024 — along with roughly 16,000 delivery assets.
The bottom line: Home Depot is no longer waiting for a major homeowner recovery to drive growth — it's building a much larger contractor and distribution business instead.
