Lowe’s: a Structural Analysis Essay

Lowes was originally started in 1921 by Lucius S. Lowe in the town of north-central Wilkesboro, northeasterly Carolina and was called Lowes North Wilkesboro Hardw are Store. The head start version of Lowes had a diametrical harvesting mix that also include notions, dry goods, horse tack, snuff, produce, and groceries. This was when it was run by Lucius S. Lowe. The business was inherited by his daughter, Ruth, when Lucius died in 1940. She in turn sold the partnership to her brother crowd together Lowe.In that aforementioned(prenominal) year that Jim bought the fund him and Ruths husband Carl Buchan served in World struggle II, during the war Ruth and her mother ran the gillyfdepressioner. after(prenominal) Carl was injured and honorably discharged in 1943 Jim took him on as a partner. Lowes was founded in 1946 Lowes has grown from a small hardware store to the second-largest main office improvement retail merchant worldwide. This is when Carl Buchan took management oer and the store started to focus primarily on hardware and descriptoring materials. Carl Buchan later bought-out his brother-in-law and partner, James Lowe, and foreseeing the post-World War II building boom.By eliminating wholesalers and dealing directly with manufacturers, Lowes found a lasting reputation for broken prices. Sales began to grow over conviction and additional Lowes stores subject in neighboring towns throughout western North Carolina. In 1960, Carl Buchan died of a heart flak catcher at age 44. His five-man executive team, which include Robert Strickland and Leonard Herring, took the comp all common in 1961. By 1962 Lowes operated 21 stores and reported yearly revenues of $32 million. In 1979, Lowes began work on the New York Stock stand in (NYSELOW).During this time, U. S. housing starts soared and professional builders became Lowes firm guests, accounting for the majority of Lowes business. In 1982, Lowes had its number 1 billion-dollar sales year, ear ning a record profit of $25 million. Lowes stores then reported serving a new type of customer do-it-yourself home officeowners seeking to improve the value of their properties. Anticipating their require speckle still accommodating contractors, Lowes began to enlarge its stores and expanded its merchandise flings.The red-brick Lowes began in 1994, when their new store expansion consisted of only large stores, which they define as stores with greater than 85,000 square feet of change space. Expansion continued as Lowes opened a new store on average every calendar week with our 117,000-square-foot (117K) stores in the nations big metro markets and our newer 94,000-square-foot (94K) stores in the nations small to mid-sized markets. Lowes opened its firstborn stores in Canada in December 2007 and opened its first stores in Mexico in February 2010.Lowes stores stock 40,000 products in 15 product categories ranging from appliances to tools, to paint, lumber and nursery products. Lowes has hundreds of thousands of products unattached by Special Order offering everything customers need to build, maintain, beautify and enjoy their homes. Lowes operates more than than 1,745 stores in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Lowes announced on August 25, 2009, that it had entered a joint venture with the Australian retailer Woolworths to enter the Australian market with cl big box style superstores. trade under the brand Masters fellowship Improvement, the first store opened in Braybrook, Victoria, to tradesmen on August 31, 2011, and the general public on September 1, 2011. Today Lowes is the second largest home improvement retailer worldwide and the 7th largest retailer in the U. S. Although times have changed since Lowes first opened its doors in 1946, Lowes value have not the company corpse committed to offering quality home improvement products at the lowest prices, while delivering superior customer service. Lowes major competitors include phratry Depo t and nail Hardware.In a functional social structure the company maintains a CEO with a small corporate staff on with managers in organizational areas such as production, accounting, marketing, R&D, engineering and human resources. Separating the organizational areas of a company allows for specialization in each functional area. However, this separation burn have a negative tack as it makes communication between these areas more difficult. This is the type of structure that Lowes uses today. Lowes shows cost leadership by their low price guarantee, where they will beat any competitors price by 10% on any in stock product.Lowes also uses a differentiation system to separate themselves from Home Depot by trying to appeal more to women, with the image that women make most home figure decisions. It is believed within the company that Lowes stores are cleaner and that their blue and red colors are more welcoming than Home Depots bold orangeness and black. They are also very cu stomer focused by having expert employees who stub give customers the knowledge needed to do projects themselves, shown by their lets build something together advertisements. This is what helps to keep Lowes on top and a constant competitor.