Deal: The Home Depot expands online operations in Georgia, adding 700 jobs
Gov. Nathan Deal announced today that The Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement retailer, has chosen Kennesaw as home for a new national customer service call center, which will create nearly 700 jobs for Georgia. This project represents an investment of more than $24 million between The Home Depot and the developer.
“The Home Depot is a great Georgia success story, and this announcement of significant job creation adds to the company’s well-established track record of creating meaningful work opportunities for Georgians,” Deal said. “It is encouraging to see one of Georgia’s pioneering Fortune 500 companies take full advantage of our competitive business climate to expand here in our state. This is great news for Georgia and the metro Atlanta region.”
Recruiting for the new positions will begin in early 2012, and the center is expected to be fully operational by late 2012.
“Having a corporate headquarters such as The Home Depot based in Cobb County is a significant selling point when recruiting new businesses and bringing jobs to our county,” said Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee. “When that same company decides to expand its operations by bringing hundreds of new jobs to Cobb, it sets the tone for Cobb's future as the best place to grow business in the Southeast.”
The expansion of The Home Depot’s customer service operations to Kennesaw will add to its already extensive employment contribution to metro Atlanta and Cobb County, which totals nearly 20,000 associates. Initially, this center will open with more than 400 associates and is expected to expand to 700 positions by 2015. The company will work with Georgia Quick Start, the state’s top-ranked workforce training initiative, to train new hires to its specifications at the Kennesaw customer service call center.
“The Cobb community is very proud to be able to continue to support existing businesses such as The Home Depot,” said Brooks Mathis, vice president of economic development for the Cobb Chamber of Commerce. “With more than 700 jobs, our citizens are sure to benefit from this wonderful announcement. We are appreciative of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Electric Cities of Georgia and the leadership in Cobb County for their teamwork.”
“We thank The Home Depot for making this investment in Atlanta. It shows their continued confidence in the depth of our readily available workforce,” said Sam A. Williams, president, Metro Atlanta Chamber. “Because we are a national center for business support centers, it is possible for companies seeking aggressive ramp-up timetables, IT infrastructure and trained customer service personnel to get up and running quickly.”
The Home Depot operates 90 stores in Georgia, and makes Atlanta home to its Store Support Center (home office), its national Retail Staffing Center, national Store Support Customer Care Center, and its Mid-South Regional Store Support Center. The company also has located several key distribution centers across the state, including a state-of-the-art Rapid Deployment Center, which added 400 jobs in Lowndes County just two years ago.
“We’re thrilled that our hometown will play such a critical role in supporting our online business and our interconnected retail strategy, which allows customers to connect and shop whenever, wherever and however they want,” said Hal Lawton, president – E-Commerce, The Home Depot. “We appreciate the assistance of Gov. Deal, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners, as well as the Cobb and Metro Atlanta Chambers.”
“As one of the cornerstone corporations of Georgia’s business community, The Home Depot has proven its commitment to our state throughout the years, and continues to do so with its expanded presence in Cobb County,” said Chris Cummiskey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “This expansion is certainly a testament to Georgia’s workforce, as well as to the metro Atlanta region’s top-ranked IT infrastructure.”
About The Home Depot
The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,246 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces, Mexico and China. In fiscal 2010, The Home Depot had sales of $68.0 billion and earnings from continuing operations of $3.3 billion. The company employs more than 300,000 associates. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index.