True Value - Competitors

True Value Competition

Now Viewing True Value's competition in: Building Material Supply (primary)

Recent Developments

Overstock of Homes for Sale Impacts New Construction - New housing starts, a key demand indicator for building supplies, fell 33 percent in August 2008 compared to August 2007, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). US homebuilders broke ground on the fewest new homes in more than 17 years. Privately owned houses authorized by building permits, a sign of future demand for building materials, dropped 36 percent compared to year-ago levels. Industry analysts blame new home construction declines on the glut of existing homes for sale.

The Home Depot Cuts Prices - Leading home improvement retailer The Home Depot lowered prices on some 1,200 items in September 2008. Price cuts, ranging from 5 to 50 percent, are intended to generate traffic, jumpstart sales, and woo back customers lost to competitors. Home Depot's move could prompt competitors, including Lowe's and Sears, to respond with their own price cuts, cautions an industry analyst, which could lead to a price war and hurt participating retailers' profit margins.

Lowe's Opening Smaller, Fewer New Stores - Lowe's is scaling down the size of most new stores to increase operating efficiency. New Lowe's stores in medium and large markets will be about 103,000 square feet, about 19,000 square feet smaller than most of its existing locations. The smaller stores will help the home improvement chain cut capital outlay costs almost $2 million per store, executives assured investors at the company's annual meeting. In addition to cutting the size of new stores, Lowe's plans to open fewer new locations in 2008 and 2009 than originally forecast.

Competitive Landscape

The industry is driven mainly by residential real estate construction and renovation. Large chains have expanded rapidly in recent years by focusing on the home improvement market, with contractor sales as a sideline. Smaller companies, often family-owned lumberyards, can compete effectively by catering to contractors (for whom price is less important than other services), through a wider range of specialty products and services, and by serving areas unattractive to the big-box stores because of limited customer concentration.

Full Industry Overview For Building Material Supply

Building Material Supply Industry Forecast

from Hoover's/D&B subsidiary First Research

The value of US private and public construction of buildings, which is a driver for building material supplies, is forecast to grow at an annual compounded rate of 7.6 percent between 2008 and 2013.

Total Building Construction Growth Recovers After Drop

First Research forecasts are based on INFORUM forecasts that are licensed from the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc. (IERF) in College Park, MD. INFORUM's "interindustry-macro" approach to modeling the economy captures the links between industries and the aggregate economy.