Home Depot, Down Argentine Way

A new Home Depot will open today in Barracas, Argentina (near Buenos Aires), the first of eight new stores in Argentina in the next 18 months, and the kickoff of aggressive expansion in Canada and Latin America in the near future. Also in the next year, three more stores are expected to open in Chile, in addition to the existing four locations that have sprung up there since 1998, when Home Depot first entered the Latin America market.

The retailer also expects to double the number of stores in Canada within four years, from 59 to more than 100, according to Home Depot's international group president, Anders Moberg. The first new store opening in the plan will be in Laval, Quebec, near Montreal. It's the first of three stores Home Depot plans to open in the predominantly French-speaking province this year.

By 2003, Home Depot expects to be managing about 1900 stores in North and South America.