Bill Boltz
Executive Vice President, Merchandising at Lowe's Companies
Thanks, Marvin, and good morning, everyone. During the first quarter, five of our 14 merchandising categories were positive, building materials, rough plumbing, paint, hardware and appliances. We continue to see broad-based Pro strength across all three merchandising divisions. In home decor, paint and appliances delivered the strongest comps this quarter. Our momentum in appliances continues to build as we drove higher unit sales and work to continue to take market share by leveraging our improved omnichannel shopping experience, enhanced market delivery capabilities, an expanded assortment.
Appliances are a great example of an omnichannel category where customers often compare options online then visit our showroom to see products in-person and then get their questions answered by one of our appliance specialists. And with our improved online capabilities like easy scheduling and order tracking, we continue to see more and more of our customers getting comfortable completing their purchases online.
In the U.S., we estimate that roughly 100,000 appliances break everyday, so our investments in fast appliance delivery and a seamless omnichannel shopping experience positions us well as the go to destination for these urgent and often nondiscretionary needs. We are also seeing increased demand in paint, especially from our Pros Who Paint, as they take advantage of our paint job site delivery, our MVPs Paint rewards program, and our improved product assortment.
This quarter, we took the next step in catering to these important customers by launching spec rate interior paint in partnership with Sherwin-Williams. This is our first exclusive line of tintable paint formulated specifically for Pros. Within the core, we recently launched new closet organization solutions across four private brands to meet a range of storage needs and budgets. This includes modular, easy to install wood or wire closet systems that are modern, customizable, and at far better value than the competition. Our private brand strategy allows us to deliver value to DIY customers who are looking for high-quality, on-trend products at more affordable price points, which enables us to provide differentiation, loyalty, and profitability.
Turning to Building Products, building materials and rough plumbing led the way. In building materials, we saw broad-based strength reflecting the investments we made to improve our Pro offering through an enhanced assortment. You may remember, last year when we announced a new 10-foot fiberglass rebar known as PINKBAR by Owens Corning. This product exceeded our sales expectation given its strength, lightweight materials and corrosion resistance. This year we are building on that success with the new 20-foot pink bar product, designed to help Pros reinforce bigger structures using fewer connections, ultimately, saving them time and money on material costs.
Rough plumbing was driven by strength in water heaters, HVAC, plumbing repair and pipe and fittings, as we continue to strengthen our offering for the Pro and the DIY consumer in these categories. And while lumber comps were pressured by steep Year-over-Year lumber deflation, the category had the highest unit comp in the company this quarter, reflecting strong Pro demand. We are pleased with our continued enhancements to our strong assortment of Pro products from trusted brands like Bosch, DEWALT, Eaton, Estwing, FastenMaster, FLEX, GRK, Hubbell, ITW, Client Tools, LESCO, Little Giant, Lufkin, Mansfield, Marshalltown, Metabo, SharkBite, Simpson Strong-Tie, Sparx, Spider and Werner.
In Hardlines, our performance was pressured by the delayed spring, some volatile weather in the West and softer discretionary spending. However, we did see higher demand during periods where weather improved. In lawn and garden, we proactively partnered with our live goods vendors to increase our agility in responding to changing weather patterns, which was critical in a season, marked by erratic weather. Our live good vendors play a key role each spring as we continue to refine our local offerings in addition to the timing of when product arrives in stores. This year, they help support our new Green Vest program where our merchandising service team or MST associates along with support from our vendors now provide service to our garden centers, taking the task off the shoulders of our Red Vest associates, to allow them to focus on serving the customer.
We also continue to expand our private brand offering, including a full lineup of new and innovative lawn fertilizers and grass seed products through our Stay Green brand, which is already exceeding our expectations. And in hardware, in addition to delivering a positive comp, we also saw strong attachment rates alongside the higher lumber unit sales and strength in building materials, powered by the improved assortments of the key fastening brands like Sparx, GRK, FastenMaster, ITW and Power Pro one.
As we continue to enhance our assortments at a national level, we also continue to advance our localization work. This is a key pillar of our Total Home strategy with the goal of expanding market-share, increasing inventory productivity and protecting our margins.
We've been piloting a localized framework for a few common market categories like rural and urban stores. Today, I'm excited to announce we are now scaling our rural framework to as many as 300 additional stores by year end, with a wider offering of farm, ranch and outdoor products that positions Lowe's as a one-stop shop to make it convenient for rural customers get what they need in one shopping trip.
Our real format includes broader product offerings in categories such as pet, livestock, trailers, fencing, utility vehicles, specialized hardware and our new Carhartt apparel, all designed to meet the unique needs and preferences of rural homeowners who work and play outdoors. Given our rural store footprint and long-standing relationships in these communities, we see this as a natural opportunity for our business, and one that will simplify the shopping experience for these very valuable customers.
And as Marvin mentioned, we see the productivity improvements in these stores as a key component to delivering sustainable growth in our operating profit. We also remain focused on our many merchandising PPI initiatives, including leveraging our modernized cost optimization tools to negotiate cost with vendors, and we're getting more strategic and surgical at our inventory planning to focus on more high-velocity, core inventory items with low markdown risk like Pro replenishment and fewer slow velocity SKUs.
From a technology standpoint, in the first-quarter, we completed the rollout of new dedicated Zebra smartphones for all MST associates ahead of schedule. These devices are equipped with the new MST app designed to optimize their time with technology that leapfrogs the competition. The system automatically prioritizes planogram changes, pricing updates, pay service and other projects to optimize associates time on the most efficient, highest-value next task. And it also gives associates step-by-step instructions to maximize productivity and minimize the learning curve for new associates. This app was built internally to seamlessly integrate with our other mobile apps. For example, each time an MST associate resets a bay, the product location automatically updates in our associate product app and our customer mobile app. So, both associates and customers can quickly find what they're looking for.
As I close, I'd like to again extend my appreciation to our vendors and our merchants for their partnership, hard work, innovation and continued support.
Thank you, and I'll now turn the call over to Joe.
