EGO moves from Home Depot to Lowes in huge retail shakeup
This week, Home Depot issued a press release with crazy news. Its "outdoor power equipment is being repositioned and repositioned by brand," the company said. The new brand rollout is expected to cover all 1,300 of its US stores by the end of the year. All seemed fine – until they dropped this little nugget:
As part of this product reset, the company has decided to discontinue the EGO line of outdoor power equipment.
UPDATE: On Wednesday, July 22, 2020, a press release from Lowe's stated the following:
Beginning December 2020, Lowe's will be the nation's only home center offering EGO's top-of-the-line line of high-quality and innovative battery-operated lawn mowers, blowers, lawn mowers, hedge trimmers, trimmers, chainsaws and snow blowers Wire.
In light of this news, our initial guess turned out to be closer than we thought. Lowe's also said it will begin offering select SKIL battery-operated outdoor power equipment in late 2020. This includes walk-behind and self-propelled lawn mowers, leaf blowers, cord and hedge trimmers, and other products and accessories.
Editor's note: Check out our Lowes vs Home Depot article for our thoughts on these two behemoth home improvement stores.
Why stop selling best-selling brands?
Now, as far as we know, EGO is Home Depot's best-selling line of premium battery-powered products by dollar share of OPE, behind only Ryobi (a consumer brand with a price point that appeals to the masses). Giving it up doesn't make much sense. In our own testing, the brand routinely comes out on top in comparison tests of lawn mowers and blowers.
So we start guessing at each other…
Is EGO ready to take its brand nationally? No longer limited to The Home Depot exclusivity could explain the reaction. We've seen the brand launch in thousands of Ace Hardware stores and expand online through Amazon and Acme Tools. Perhaps this change is afoot?
Going national will also give the EGO Power+ brand more freedom to deploy other products as it sees fit based on broader market needs.
The Home Depot's announcement has more context, as Lowe's now says it will carry and sell EGO outdoor power equipment products. As EGO moved from Home Depot to Lowes, they also moved to a slightly better position. Lowe's is the #1 OPE retailer based on market share. This would be an interesting lateral move for EGO.
what do you think?
what do you think? Has EGO gone to the whole country? Do you have any other thoughts or guesses about what EGO might do after this move? Leave a comment below – we want to know your thoughts.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on July 21, 2020 under the title "Is EGO's Outdoor Power Tools Going National?". We last updated it on July 22, 2020, after Lowe's posted a press release on its corporate website. We will keep updating as new information becomes available.