Lowe’s History: How the Business Changed Across More Than a Century

Lowe’s began in 1921 as a hardware store in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The early business sold hardware and building materials alongside a broader general-store assortment.

One of its defining changes came after World War II. Lowe’s historical account attributes the 1946 refocus to Carl Buchan, who narrowed the business toward home-improvement products as postwar construction demand was expected to rise.

That was the first of several major operating shifts. Lowe’s later moved from a contractor-heavy customer base toward retail and do-it-yourself shoppers, transformed its stores as warehouse-style home centers reshaped the industry, expanded internationally, and then pulled back from several overseas operations.

By the 2020s, management had concentrated the business more heavily on U.S. home improvement, omnichannel retail, services, and professional customers. Acquisitions completed in 2025 expanded that strategy beyond the traditional store network into design, installation, and specialty building-material distribution.

A Quick Look at the History of Lowe’s

From a General Store to a Focused Building-Supply Business

The Lowe’s story begins with Lowe’s North Wilkesboro Hardware, which L.S. Lowe opened in 1921. The store carried hardware and building materials, but its assortment was broader than the home-improvement focus associated with Lowe’s today.

After L.S. Lowe died in 1940, his son Jim Lowe took over the store. During the 1940s, Jim brought his brother-in-law Carl Buchan into the business as a co-owner.

A major change followed in 1946. Lowe’s historical account attributes the move to Buchan, who refocused the business on home-improvement products as postwar construction demand was expected to rise. The change gave the operation a more specialized identity.

A second Lowe’s store opened in Sparta, North Carolina, in 1949. In 1952, Buchan became sole owner, ending his joint ownership with Jim Lowe. Lowe’s Companies’ current corporate lineage also dates its North Carolina incorporation to 1952.

The Lowe’s name remained after ownership consolidated under Buchan. The business then entered a new stage: expansion from a small regional operation into a publicly held company.

Building a Regional Chain and Going Public

Buchan expanded the store network during the 1950s. In 1961, Lowe’s became publicly held, broadening ownership as the regional chain continued to grow.

Through the 1960s and 1970s, Lowe’s developed as a building-supply and home-improvement retailer with professional builders and contractors representing an important part of its customer base.

Lowe’s common stock was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1979. Around the same period, the company’s customer focus was beginning to shift more heavily toward retail consumers and the do-it-yourself market.

The Shift From Contractors to DIY Customers

Lowe’s own reporting shows how substantial that change became. Its 1990 annual report said contractors had once accounted for as much as 70% of sales. By 1990, retail customers represented 66% of sales, while contractors accounted for 34%.

The change went beyond marketing. Lowe’s expanded sales-floor space, relocated stores, adjusted merchandising, and increasingly built its operating model around the home-center customer.

The shift changed who the retailer primarily served without moving it outside its core category. Lowe’s was still selling home-improvement and building products, but the balance between professional and consumer customers had changed materially.

By 1982, Lowe’s recorded its first billion-dollar sales year. The next challenge was not simply growing the existing model. Warehouse-style home-improvement stores were changing the competitive landscape.

The Warehouse-Store Transformation

During the late 1980s and 1990s, much larger warehouse-style stores were reshaping home-improvement retail. Home Depot had become a major competitor in that format, and Lowe’s faced pressure to compete as store size, assortment, and scale became increasingly important.

Lowe’s progressively enlarged and replaced stores with larger home-center and warehouse-style locations. The retailer also moved more aggressively into metropolitan markets rather than remaining primarily associated with small and midsize communities.

The transformation combined changes in store size, location, merchandising, and customer focus. Together, those changes established the operating model Lowe’s used during its national expansion.

Lowe’s launched Lowes.com in 1995, adding an online presence before e-commerce became a central part of home-improvement retail.

In 1999, Lowe’s completed its merger with Eagle Hardware & Garden. The transaction accelerated western U.S. expansion and strengthened a national-growth phase already underway.

From National Retailer to International Expansion

By the mid-2000s, Lowe’s served DIY shoppers, customers using installation services, and professional or commercial customers. With a large U.S. store network in place, management pursued additional growth outside the United States.

Lowe’s opened its first Canadian stores in December 2007. Those locations were the company’s first retail stores outside the United States.

International expansion later included Mexico and an Australian home-improvement joint venture with Woolworths. Lowe’s entered the Australian joint venture in 2009.

In Canada, Lowe’s made a much larger move in 2016 when it completed the acquisition of RONA inc. in a transaction valued at C$3.2 billion, or about US$2.4 billion at the time. According to Lowe’s, the combined Canadian operations had 539 locations when the deal closed.

The expansion broadened Lowe’s geographic reach, but the international story did not move in one direction. Several of those operations were later reduced, exited, or sold.

International Setbacks and a Broader Portfolio Reset

The Australian joint venture became a significant setback. In January 2016, Lowe’s notified Woolworths that it intended to begin the process of exiting the venture. Lowe’s later reported a $530 million non-cash impairment related to that decision.

Lowe’s also operated stores in Mexico. In 2018, the company announced plans to exit its Mexican retail operations.

These were separate businesses in different markets, so their outcomes should not be reduced to a single cause. Taken together, however, they show that Lowe’s international retail expansion produced mixed results and was later substantially reversed.

A broader restructuring began after Marvin Ellison became president and CEO in July 2018.

The 2018 Restructuring Under Marvin Ellison

Ellison and Lowe’s management conducted a strategic reassessment centered on the core home-improvement business and operational execution.

One of the first major actions involved Orchard Supply Hardware. Lowe’s committed to exit that business and planned to close all 99 Orchard stores and their servicing distribution facility by the end of fiscal 2018.

Later that year, Lowe’s announced the closure of 20 underperforming stores in the United States and 31 stores and other locations in Canada. The company also announced plans to exit its Mexican retail operations and certain other non-core activities.

Those actions narrowed the operating footprint. Management also directed investment toward areas including merchandising, supply chain, technology, online capabilities, and execution for professional customers.

The restructuring did not end Lowe’s international story immediately. The company still owned a large Canadian retail business built around RONA and related banners, which remained under Lowe’s ownership until 2023.

Total Home and the Pandemic-Era Surge

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed how households used and invested in their homes. Lowe’s fiscal 2020 net sales rose 24.2% to $89.6 billion, while contemporaneous Reuters reporting tied unusually strong home-improvement demand to repair and DIY spending during lockdowns.

The demand surge was an external force rather than a strategy created by management. At the same time, Lowe’s continued operational changes already underway.

In December 2020, Lowe’s introduced its Total Home strategy. The company described the framework around Pro customers, online growth, installation services, localization, and product assortment, spanning DIY, do-it-for-me, and professional customers across physical and digital channels.

Total Home evolved over time but remained central to management’s stated direction into the middle of the decade.

Selling the Canadian Retail Business

In November 2022, Lowe’s announced an agreement to sell its Canadian retail business to Sycamore Partners. The sale was completed on February 3, 2023.

The transaction included 232 corporate stores and a network serving 210 dealer-owned stores under banners that included RONA, Lowe’s Canada, Réno-Dépôt, and Dick’s Lumber.

For the fiscal year ended February 3, 2023, Lowe’s reported $2.5 billion in pre-tax costs associated with the sale. Those costs included impairment, loss on sale, and other closing costs, so the Canadian chapter cannot be reduced to a simple comparison between the original acquisition price and the later sale value.

The transaction ended Lowe’s Canadian retail operation under that ownership structure. It did not permanently remove every Lowe’s corporate connection to Canada.

Expanding the Pro Strategy Beyond the Store Network

By late 2024, Lowe’s had updated Total Home around five stated priorities: increasing Pro penetration, accelerating online sales, expanding home services, creating a loyalty ecosystem, and improving space productivity.

In 2025, Lowe’s Companies completed two acquisitions that materially broadened the Pro side of the business.

In June, Lowe’s completed the acquisition of Artisan Design Group for about $1.3 billion. ADG provides design, distribution, and installation of interior surface finishes to builders and property managers.

In October, Lowe’s completed the acquisition of Foundation Building Materials for about $8.8 billion. FBM is a distributor of building materials and construction products with branch operations in the United States and Canada.

Lowe’s management described the acquisitions as part of a broader strategy to strengthen capabilities for larger professional customers. The transactions added services, specialty distribution, trade-credit capabilities, and branch infrastructure outside the traditional home-improvement store model.

The result differs from Lowe’s earlier contractor-heavy history. Professional customers again receive greater emphasis, but within a much larger retail, digital, service, and distribution system than the one that existed decades earlier.

Where Lowe’s Stands Today

As of January 30, 2026, Lowe’s reported 1,759 home-improvement stores and outlets in the United States. The company also reported more than 540 branch locations associated with Foundation Building Materials and Artisan Design Group in the United States and Canada.

Marvin R. Ellison serves as chairman, president and CEO. Total Home remains the company’s stated strategic framework, with management emphasizing Pro penetration, online sales, home services, loyalty, and space productivity.

The modern Lowe’s is therefore broader than a chain of big-box stores. Its current structure combines traditional home-improvement retail with online sales, installation and design services, and specialty distribution for professional customers.

A History of Repeated Operating Changes

Across more than a century, Lowe’s history has been shaped by repeated changes in how the business serves the home-improvement market.

The early operation narrowed from a general-store assortment to building and home-improvement products. The customer mix later shifted from contractor-heavy sales toward DIY consumers. Store formats changed as warehouse-style retail gained ground. International expansion widened the company’s reach, while later exits brought the retail footprint back toward a more concentrated U.S. base.

The most recent phase adds another layer. Lowe’s remains centered on home improvement, but acquisitions and services have expanded the ways it reaches professional customers beyond the aisles of its traditional stores.

Timeline

This timeline highlights major milestones that shaped Lowe’s from its 1921 origins through its current form.

1921

L.S. Lowe opens Lowe’s North Wilkesboro Hardware in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina.

1940

Jim Lowe takes over the store after the death of L.S. Lowe.

1946

Carl Buchan refocuses the business on home-improvement products.

1949

A second Lowe’s store opens in Sparta, North Carolina.

1952

Carl Buchan becomes sole owner. Lowe’s Companies’ current corporate lineage also dates its North Carolina incorporation to 1952.

1961

Lowe’s becomes publicly held.

1979

Lowe’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

1982

Lowe’s records its first billion-dollar sales year.

Late 1980s-1990s

Lowe’s moves more heavily toward larger warehouse-style home centers and a stronger DIY retail focus.

1995

Lowes.com launches.

1999

Lowe’s completes its merger with Eagle Hardware & Garden, accelerating western U.S. expansion.

2007

Lowe’s opens its first Canadian stores, its first retail stores outside the United States.

2009

Lowe’s enters a home-improvement joint venture in Australia with Woolworths.

2016

Lowe’s begins the process of exiting the Australian joint venture and completes its C$3.2 billion acquisition of RONA inc.

July 2018

Marvin Ellison becomes president and CEO.

2018

Lowe’s commits to exit Orchard Supply Hardware, announces U.S. and Canadian store closures, and announces plans to exit retail operations in Mexico.

2020

Lowe’s introduces the Total Home strategy. Fiscal 2020 net sales rise 24.2% to $89.6 billion during the pandemic-era home-improvement demand surge.

February 3, 2023

Lowe’s completes the sale of its Canadian retail business to Sycamore Partners.

June 2, 2025

Lowe’s completes the acquisition of Artisan Design Group.

October 9, 2025

Lowe’s completes the acquisition of Foundation Building Materials.

January 30, 2026

Lowe’s reports 1,759 U.S. home-improvement stores and outlets and more than 540 ADG and FBM branch locations in the United States and Canada.

FAQs

Question: Why is the business still called Lowe’s if Carl Buchan became sole owner?

Answer: The business kept the Lowe’s name after Carl Buchan became sole owner in 1952. The name came from the original Lowe family business, Lowe’s North Wilkesboro Hardware, founded by L.S. Lowe in 1921.

Question: Did Lowe’s completely leave Canada?

Answer: Lowe’s sold its Canadian retail business in 2023. The 2025 acquisition of Foundation Building Materials later added branch operations in both the United States and Canada, so Lowe’s again had corporate operations in Canada outside its former retail-store business.

Sources

• Lowe’s Corporate: Our History, RONA Acquisition, 2018 Store Closures, Artisan Design Group Acquisition, Marvin R. Ellison
• Lowe’s Annual Reports: 1990 Annual Report, 1999 Annual Report
• Strategy+Business: Format Invasions
• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: Fiscal 2007 Form 10-K, Fiscal 2010 Form 10-K, Australian Joint Venture Exit, Marvin Ellison Appointment, Orchard Supply Hardware Exit, 2018 Restructuring Actions, 2020 Total Home Strategy, Fiscal 2020 Form 10-K, Fiscal 2022 Form 10-K and Canadian Sale, Fiscal 2025 Form 10-K, 2026 Form 10-Q and Acquisitions
• Reuters: Pandemic-Era Home Improvement Demand