Home improvement giant Lowe’s has announced its intention to stop carrying paint strippers containing two chemicals that are being blamed for dozens of deaths. Time
Lowe’s will close 51 underperforming stores in North America, the company announced Monday.
The move – which includes the closure of 20 stores in the United States and 31 stores in Canada – is part of a strategic reassessment in which the company said it plans to focus “on its most profitable stores and improve the overall health of its store portfolio.”
“While decisions that impact our associates are never easy, the store closures are a necessary step in our strategic reassessment as we focus on building a stronger business,” Marvin R. Ellison, Lowe’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
The company said it plans to close these stores by Feb. 1, 2019. To carry out this process, Lowe’s will “conduct store closing sales for most of the impacted locations.”
Lowe’s has made big changes in the past year. After CEO of 13 years Robert Niblock retired in March, the company brought on Ellison, the former J.C. Penney CEO, in May. Since taking over, Ellison has made several reforms, such as banning certain paint strippers and planning to close all Orchard Supply Hardware stores.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from February, Lowe’s operates over 2,000 stores in North America.
Here are the stores that will be closing in the United States:
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