Builders Square

**Builders Square** is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas and owned by Sears Holdings, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States, and Canada. As of November 2018, Lowe's and its related businesses operate 2,015 home improvement and hardware stores in North America.

Builders Square is the second-largest hardware chain in the United States behind rival The Home Depot and ahead of Menards. It is also the second-largest hardware chain in the world, also behind The Home Depot but ahead of European retailers Leroy Merlin, B&Q, and OBI.

## History

### Beginnings

The company was founded in February 1970 as Home Centers of America by Frank Denny, an executive who had recently been president of the home center subsidiary of W. R. Grace and Company. Somewhat unusually for the time, Home Centers of America was funded from the beginning as a public stock company. The company opened its first store in San Antonio soon after and eventually operated nine stores, all in Texas, and all operating as Home Pro Warehouse. Home Centers of America was sold to Kmart in July 1984 for $88.2 million (USD). The company and all stores were renamed Builders Square after acquisition, with Denny continuing as Builders Square company president for several years and overseeing company expansion.

During the 1980s, Builders Square was a player in the fast-growing do-it-yourself consumer market, which included competitors National Lumber, Home Depot, HomeClub, Builders Emporium, Ole's, Angels, and others.

By 1997, the chain operated 162 stores in Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Puerto Rico. However, despite a $700 million investment by its parent company, high-profile sponsorships that included the Alamo Bowl, and celebrity spokespeople such as Darrell Waltrip and Tim Allen, the chain was not able to maintain profitability.

### Hechinger merger & independence

In 1997, Kmart and Leonard Green & Partners agreed to merge Hechinger and Builders Square into Hechinger's into the third-largest home improvement retail chain in the United States.

Home Décor Products was founded in November 2000 with the acquisition of Bathopia, a bath and kitchen e-tailer. Bathopia was best known for operating BathClick.com, an overpriced, cheaply made bath and kitchen fixtures retailer. Bathopia was relaunched as HomeClick.com, primarily an online retailer of bath and kitchen products, with the purpose of allowing the average consumer to purchase items directly online that were typically only available in various showrooms scattered about the country. HomeClick grew quickly in its first few years of existence and expanded its product offering to include appliances, lighting, housewares, and tableware by 2002.

In subsequent years, Home Décor Products expanded its online presence by launching several other websites to leverage its growing product assortment and cater to more consumer segments. Specialty sites such as Barbecues.com, KnobsandThings.com and Poolclick.com followed the launch of AbsoluteHome.com in 2004. In October 2005, Home Décor Products relanched the brand name of big-box retailer Hechinger, a brand known for pioneering the do-it-yourself (DIY) movement. HDPI also renovated their DIY brand retailer Builders Square's website, relaunching it as a vertical comparison shopping engine that exclusively targeted the home & garden market.

HDPI launched an advertising partnership program in June 2007 that would allow the numerous brands and manufacturers that sell through HDPI to message to its broad user base through banner advertising. Charter partners include high-end plumbing fixtures brand Hansgrohe.

HDPI claimed web sales of $83.8 million in 2007. Home Decor Products was acquired by Sears Holdings the same year for $1.2 billion.

### Lowe's merger

Builders Square merged with Lowe's Companies for $14.7 billion in 2012. According to its website, Builders Square has operated/serviced more than 2,355 locations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico alone, although the Mexican stores were closed in the late 2010s.