Home Depot Franchise: Can You Own One?

The Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement retailer. With an average building size of over 100,000 square feet and more than 2,000 stores in the U.S. alone, its footprint in the home improvement industry is significant. For the savvy business owner looking to get established in this space, owning a The Home Depot franchise might seem like a viable option to pursue. However, the company doesn’t offer franchises; all locations are company-owned.

Interestingly, there’s an aspect of The Home Depot model that’s available as a franchise through ProSource Wholesale. And you can own a ProSource home improvement franchise.

Can’t Own The Home Depot? Franchise with ProSource

The Home Depot is a retailer that positions itself as a consumer-focused brand. It’s open late, inventories tens of thousands of products, and its slogan of “You can do it. We can help.” is clearly geared to the DIY crowd. However, one aspect of their business does serve contractors, and that’s where ProSource put its entire focus.

ProSource Wholesale vs. The Home Depot: Franchise Opportunity

Here’s what The Home Depot promotes as supporting the contractor segment of their business:

• Dedicated pro checkouts
• Reserved pro parking
• Pro desk for assistance
• Volume pricing and discounts on certain items

Comparatively, ProSource Wholesale is a franchise with a sole focus on contractors and trade professionals in the industry. This is what we offer:

• Every checkout is for trade pros
• All parking is for trade pros
• The design and account management team is entirely for trade pros
• Trade pros receive wholesale pricing on all items, all the time

Another challenge for The Home Depot, is that contractors can only access the store during their operating hours, some of which have been reduced due to staffing challenges. ProSource offers contractor access to the showroom 24/7, every day of the year, through a dedicated member access key, which means trade professionals can choose products and order at any time.

In addition, the ProSource showroom is really the trade pro’s showroom, as the trade pro can send customers to view samples and ideas in person, supported by the ProSource staff. At ProSource, the trade pro segment is our entire business.

Is the Trade Pro Niche Market Worth It?

There has been discussion about the demand for trade professionals, so you might be wondering if there’s enough of a customer base to support this niche market approach.

ProSource has been in this niche market for more than 30 years, and our showrooms have an average unit volume of $6.5 million – with six employees. Our home improvement franchise focus is on kitchen and bath, flooring, outdoor living, and sundries, which are projects that are most often delivered by trades professionals.

According to the National Kitchen + Bath Association’s Q4 2023 report:

• Despite economic challenges, most kitchen and bath professionals reported a 6.5% increase in project completions on average and are expecting revenues to increase by 7% in 2024
• High-income households appear more inclined to move forward with major kitchen and bath remodeling projects in 2024
• Remodeling projects deferred in early 2024 will fuel demand in the coming years

Here’s one more consideration when it comes to focusing on this niche market: a single trade professional does a significantly higher frequency of remodels compared to a single retail customer. A trade pro will remodel many bathrooms in a year, while a retail customer will remodel one bathroom in maybe a decade. This is why the ProSource model is viable.

Building Success in a B2B Franchise

Another aspect of the Prosource franchise is you are in the business-to-business (B2B) landscape. Your customers are other people in business who have hundreds of customers of their own who need quality products at good prices.

One in six skilled tradespeople own their own business, and another 20% become partners in a business. As young people start to compare the cost of post-secondary education with a trade school education (for which many employers are offering reimbursement), plus the entrepreneurial opportunity in this field, the future is strong in the trades.

An important note: Skilled trade work cannot be outsourced or automated, which provides a longevity factor to our customer base.

Get to Know the ProSource Franchise

Even if The Home Depot did offer franchising, it wouldn’t match the benefits that ProSource offers in terms of regular working hours, no accounts receivables, and not having money tied up in inventory with our on-demand order model.

We offer single- and multi-unit ownership options. Fill out our franchise form today and start exploring a great opportunity for franchise ownership in the home improvement industry.