Home Depot to speed product flow to stores

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Home Depot (HD.N) on Thursday said it plans to open more rapid deployment centers that enable it to speed up product flow to stores and lower distribution costs.

The home improvement retailer told its analyst meeting that it has three of these centers already and expects to complete the roll-out of others by 2010. The centers will lead to improved inventory turnover and better in-stock levels in stores, it said.

By 2011, Home Depot said it expects to gain about 20 to 30 basis points of benefits to its gross margin as the deployment centers reduce logistics costs.

(Reporting by Karen Jacobs, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)