Page 36 - HW August 2020

global eyes
US players make big outdoor power changes
NEWS BROKE AT the end of July that both Home Depot and Lowe’s had being busy resetting their outdoor power (OPE) categories.
Headlines homed in on the fact that the big selling EGO brand, a Home Depot exclusive, along with its battery-powered mowers, blowers, string trimmers, hedge trimmers, lawn edgers, chainsaws and snow blowers, were being taken out of e Home Depot.
e Home Depot has been talking about re ning and simplifying the primary brands in its OPE o ering:
“We have been extremely pleased by
the customer response to our premiere outdoor power brands, as we improved the shopping experience with a simpli ed presentation,” says Ted Decker,
Executive VPO of Merchandising. “Similar to prior resets in our power
tool business, outdoor power equipment is being reset and positioned by brand, and we will complete this rollout to approximately 1,300 US stores by year’s end.”
e Home Depot’s new, “enhanced assortment” across cordless outdoor power will then comprise Ryobi, Makita, DeWalt and Milwaukee, a key stated factor being that their various battery platforms “collectively make up the vast majority of batteries already owned by consumers”.
ere’s good logic to that, but around the trade there’s been surprise at the decision, given the broadly circulated but uncon rmed intelligence that EGO was the
big orange sheds’ top selling outdoor power brand by value, second only to Ryobi and its consumer-friendly price points.
And then we learned that EGO would be shifting to Lowe’s – the US OPE market leader taking on the “number one brand in battery-powered outdoor power equipment” – instead!
Pro and DIY level EGO products will be available through Lowes.com and some stores this autumn with the major roll out to all US stores by February 2021.
Lowe’s has also indicated it will begin o ering select SKIL battery-powered outdoor power equipment in late 2020.
e SKIL brand by the way comes from the same stable as EGO, with both brands being under the Chervon umbrella.
http://global.chervongroup.com/
34 NZHJ | AUGUST 2020
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