You won't feel tariffs at our checkouts, Home Depot says
Eduardo MunozAlvarez/VIEWpress
- Home Depot said it would maintain pricing levels despite the impact of tariffs.
- The CFO cited strong supplier ties and productivity for the move.
- The retailer posted a rise in first-quarter sales, while earnings dipped.
Home Depot said it had no plans to pass on the cost of tariffs to consumers despite their financial impact.
"We intend to generally maintain pricing across our portfolio," the home improvement retailer's head of merchandising, Billy Bastek, said during Tuesday's earnings call. "We don't see broad-based price increases for our customers at all going forward."
Executives said on the call that half of Home Depot's inventory was sourced from within the US, and that no single country will represent more than 10% of its supply base by this time next year.
"We have a number of different levers," Bastek added.
Speaking earlier to CNBC, CFO Richard McPhail cited the retailer's scale, close partnerships with suppliers, and supply chain productivity as key factors enabling it to absorb rising costs.
Bastek said on the earnings call that maintaining prices could help Home Depot (and its supplier brands) take market share from competitors that end up charging more.
The comments follow Walmart's announcement that it would raise prices in the coming weeks in response to the financial impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs.
Retail analysts told Business Insider that Walmart's move gave other retailers air cover to follow suit, if they so choose.
McPhail's comments come as Home Depot posted a 9.4% rise in first-quarter sales to $39.9 billion, although comparable sales fell by 0.6% due to the impact of foreign exchange rates.
Net earnings fell $200 million to $3.4 billion compared with the same period last year.
CEO Ted Decker said in a statement that the first-quarter results were in line with expectations.
"We feel great about our store readiness and product assortment as spring continues to break across the country," he said.
Home Depot maintained its full-year guidance of a 2.8% rise in total sales and an approximately 1% increase for comparable sales.
The stock rose 0.3% in afternoon trading and is down 2% this year.