Mexicali Home

The Home Depot (Atlanta) has opened its ninth store in Mexico. Last week, it cut the ribbon on a 77,000-square-foot store — including a 5000-square-foot garden center — in Mexicali, B.C.

The nation's largest home-improvement retailer said it expects to construct and open three more stores in Mexico this year — in Tijuana, Culiacan and San Luis Potosi — with expected opening dates of October, November and December, respectively. And, said the retailer, additional sites in Mexico are under consideration for development in 2003.

Home Depot first entered Mexico in June 2001, through the acquisition of Total HOME. The Total HOME stores in Monterrey and Mexico City were converted to Home Depot stores in March 2002. Earlier this year, the company acquired Del Norte, a four-store home improvement chain formally based in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. With these acquisitions, Home Depot became Mexico's second largest home-improvement retailer in a market estimated at more than $12.5 billion.