The Home Depot Celebrates Hispanic Culture Through Color and Paint With Colores Origenes

The Home Depot Celebrates Hispanic Culture Through Color and Paint With Colores OrigenesATLANTA, Sept 14, 2005 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- The Home Depot(R), the world's largest home improvement retailer, today announced the launch of a new Hispanic color palette named Colores Origenes. Capturing the richness of colors influenced from Latin America and the Caribbean, the vibrant palette will feature more than 70 colors. The color palette is the first of its kind and was created after research demonstrated that consumers would welcome a paint line that reflects Hispanic culture, with Spanish names to provide inspiration through a collection of shades they can relate to visually. Origenes, which means the origin of one's roots, will be sold exclusively at The Home Depot in select stores beginning Monday, Sept. 19. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030502/HOMEDEPOTLOGO ) "Research shows that painting is one of the most common home improvement projects undertaken by Hispanic consumers," said Tom Taylor, executive vice president of Merchandising & Marketing at The Home Depot. "It was a natural fit for us to create a color palette that would celebrate the richness of Hispanic culture as well as to further demonstrate our ongoing commitment to being the company of choice for Hispanics." The use of international style themes is popular in home decor today. With Spanish names like Azul Cielito Lindo (Lovely Blue Sky) and Chayote (Chayote Squash), the colors will help create visuals of Latin America and serve to inspire consumers who are looking to capture that culture in their home decor. In addition to the research that revealed painting is one of the most popular home improvement projects among Hispanics, it also demonstrated that 59 percent of Hispanics speak Spanish all the time and are more likely to purchase brands advertised in Spanish. Advertising for the new color palette will be featured in Spanish while signage and promotional materials in The Home Depot stores will be bilingual. The Home Depot has an increasing focus on serving and marketing to the rapidly growing Hispanic community with initiatives such as a national hiring partnership with four of the country's leading national Hispanic organizations, bilingual signage and how-to clinics in select stores, bilingual advertising, and community service projects. Hispanics are the fastest-growing consumer segment in the nation, representing 14 percent of the U.S. population. It is estimated that by 2008, Hispanics will have an approximate annual purchasing power of $1 trillion or 9.6 percent of the U.S. GDP. The Home Depot partnered with Behr Process Corporation, the largest provider of premium paints and stains to the North American do-it-yourself (DIY) home improvement market, to create the innovative, new line of colors. The new color palette will be available in select stores across the country. The stores not displaying the color palette still have the capability to mix the paint colors. Customers can call the BEHR customer care line at (800) 854- 0133 ext. 3 to receive a Colores Origenes color card that they can take to their local store to match the paint color they have selected. Founded in 1978, The Home Depot(R) is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer and the second largest retailer in the United States, with fiscal 2004 sales of $73.1 billion. The company employs approximately 325,000 associates and has 1,945 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. The company has announced plans for retail expansion into China. The Home Depot has been recognized by Fortune as the No. 1 Most Admired Specialty Retailer for 2005. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index. HDG SOURCE The Home Depot Jen King of The Home Depot, +1-770-384-4390, or Jennifer_King@homedepot.com ; or Brenda C. Mendoza of The Vidal Partnership, +1-646-356-6614, or bmendoza@vidalpartnership.comhttp://www.prnewswire.comCopyright (C) 2005 PR Newswire. All rights reserved. News Provided by COMTEX