EGO Moves from Home Depot to Lowes in Huge Retail Shakeup
Crazy news came out this week with a press release from The Home Depot. The company stated that its “outdoor power equipment is being reset and positioned by brand”. This new brand rollout is expected to hit all 1300 of its U.S. stores by the end of the year. That all seemed fine—until they dropped this little nugget:
As part of this merchandise reset, the company has made the decision to discontinue the EGO line of outdoor power equipment.
UPDATE: On Wednesday, July 22, 2020, a Lowe’s press release stated the following:
Beginning in December 2020, Lowe’s will be the exclusive nationwide home center to offer the top-rated line of EGO’s high-quality and innovative battery-powered mowers, blowers, string trimmers, hedge trimmers, edgers, chainsaws, and snowblowers.
Given this news, our initial speculation proved closer than we thought. Lowe’s has also indicated it will begin offering select SKIL battery-powered outdoor power equipment in late 2020. This includes push and self-propelled mowers, leaf blowers, string and hedge trimmers, among other products and accessories.
Why Discontinue a Top-Selling Brand?
Now, as far as we’re aware—EGO was Home Depot’s top-selling premium battery-powered product line in OPE by dollar share and number two only to Ryobi (a consumer brand with price points that appeal to the masses). Dropping it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. In our own testing, the brand often ranks top in comparative testing for mowers and blowers.
So we started speculating amongst ourselves…
Is EGO getting ready to take their brand national? No longer limiting themselves to being exclusive to The Home Depot would explain this sort of response. We’ve already seen the brand roll out to thousands of Ace Hardware stores and expand online with Amazon and Acme Tools . Perhaps this change was in the works?
Going national would also give the EGO Power+ brand more freedom to deploy additional products as it sees fit based on wider market demands.
Since Lowe’s is now indicating it will carry and sell EGO outdoor power equipment products, the Home Depot announcement has a bit more context. As EGO moves from Home Depot to Lowes, they also move to a slightly better position. Lowe’s is the #1 retailer for OPE based on market share. This will be an interesting lateral move for EGO.
What Do YOU Think?
What do you think? Is EGO going national? Have any other thoughts or speculation about what EGO might be up to following this move? Leave a comment below—we want to know what you think.
Editor’s Note: This article originally published on July 21, 2020, under the title “Is EGO Going National with its Outdoor Power Tools?”. We last updated it on July 22, 2020, after Lowe’s posted their press release on their corporate website. We’ll keep updating if and when new information becomes available.
