Home Depot has no plans for more store closures

ATLANTA, June 24 (Reuters) - Retailer Home Depot Inc (HD.N), which announced the shuttering of 15 underperforming stores earlier this year, has no plans for additional store closures in the near term, an executive said on Tuesday.

Paul Raines, Home Depot executive vice president for U.S. stores, also said during a presentation at the 18th Annual Wachovia Securities Nantucket Equity Conference, monitored by webcast, that the retailer was seeing "a tremendous shift toward repair-remodel categories" as the slumping housing market leads consumers to curb big-ticket renovation projects.

He also added that while some suppliers were pressing the Atlanta-based chain for price rises, some vendors were willing to forgo such increases in order to gain sales volume. (Reporting by Karen Jacobs, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)