Lowe's 1997 Annual Report Download - page 3

To Our Shareholders
In 1997, Lowe’s got better at what we do well.
We served more than twenty million customers,
ringing up 200 million transactions. We topped
$10 billion in sales and achieved record earnings
of $357 million. In addition, during our 51st year
we dedicated ourselves to acquiring a comprehen-
sive understanding of our increasingly diverse
customer base. As a result, we are now better able
to provide the superior customer satisfaction that
is essential to Lowe’s continued growth and
prosperity.
The Nineties have been a great platform from
which to launch Lowe’s into the new millennium.
In this decade, so far, we have achieved a 20%
compound sales growth rate and a 26% com-
pound growth rate in net earnings. Those results
have kept pace with the increase in our total
square footage as we have transformed Lowe’s
into a chain of large home improvement ware-
houses. Although Lowe’s has been around for half
a century, 75% of our square footage is less than
four years old. At the end of 1997 we had 289
large stores (80,000 square feet and larger) which
accounted for 85% of our total 36.5 million
square feet of selling space.
We have been completing new store projects
(including relocations) at a rate of more than one
per week. In 1997 we opened 42 new stores in
new markets, taking Lowe’s product assortment
and customer service to millions of new custom-
ers. We also completed 24 “ re-Lowe-cations,”
continuing the transformation that has yielded
immediate and vigorous sales and earnings
growth from relocated stores.
We have opened four state-of-the-art regional
distribution centers (rdc’s) within the last four
years, and a fifth is currently
Bob Tillman at a Gold Advisory Board meeting.
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