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| Type | Public (NYSE: ODP) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1986 |
| Headquarters | Boca Raton, Florida, U.S. |
| Key people | Steve Odland , Chairman & CEO Charles E. Brown, President of International Operations Carl Rubin, President of North American Retail Division |
| Industry | Specialty retail |
| Products | Office supplies |
| Revenue | ▼$14.496 billion USD (2008)[1] |
| Operating income | ▼$1.545 billion USD (2008)[2] |
| Net income | ▼$1.479 billion USD (2008)[3] |
| Employees | 42,000 (2009) |
| Website | http://www.officedepot.com |
Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) is a supplier of office products and services. The company's selection of brand name office supplies includes business machines, computers, computer software and office furniture, while its business services encompass copying, printing, document reproduction, mailing and shipping. An S&P 500 company, Office Depot generates revenues of over US $14 billion annually and has 42,000 employees worldwide. It is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.
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History
Office Depot was founded by three partners: Pat Sher, Stephen Dougherty, and Jack Kopkin.[4] They envisioned a warehouse-style store for office products where customers could purchase items in bulk for discounted prices. This concept lead to starting Office Depot, and the company opened its first store in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida in 1986.[5] The company saw steady growth throughout the years, and opened the 1000th Office Depot North American retail store in Countryside, IL in 2005.
Other events and milestones[6]
- 1988 – Initial public offering of stock.
- 1991 – Expands to the West Coast of the United States by merging with Office Club.
- 1992 - Increases operations in North America by acquiring The Great Canadian Office Supplies Warehouse Chain.
- 1993 - Enters contract stationer business by acquiring Wilson Stationery & Printing Company and Eastman Office Products Corporation.[7]
- 1994 – Begins international expansion by signing joint venture agreement with Grupo Gigante in Mexico and licensing agreements with Israel, Colombia and Poland.
- 1995 – Opens 500th store in North America as well as stores in Mexico and Poland; signs joint venture agreement to open stores in France and licensing agreement to open store in Thailand; establishes Business Services Division (now Business Solutions Division).
- 1996 – Launches B-to-B e-commerce Web site.
- 1997 – Furthers international footprint by venturing into Hungary; operates 45 locations outside the United States.
- 1998 – Launches www.officedepot.com; merges with Viking Office Products, the leading direct marketer of office products in Europe and Australia.
- 1999 – Launches first international Office Depot Web site, www.viking-direct.co.uk; listed on Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
- 2000 - Enters European contract stationer market with launch of the European Business Services Division.
- 2001 – Acquires 4sure.com.[8]
- 2002 - Begins Viking Direct catalog/direct mail operations in Switzerland, Spain and Portugal; expands into Central America with new retail stores in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Costa Rica through a joint licensing agreement.
- 2003 – Doubles European business with acquisition of Guilbert, S.A.; becomes the first office supply superstore to offer fully-functional and comprehensive Spanish website.
- 2004 - Introduces “Green Book” catalog of environmentally-preferable products, as well as the first free, nationwide in-store electronics recycling program and free, in-store cell phone and rechargable battery recycling program in all stores in the U.S. and Canada.
- 2005 – Names Steve Odland Chairman and Chief Executive Officer[9]; relaunches “Taking Care of Business” tagline.
- 2006 - Celebrates its 20th anniversary; acquires Best Office Co., Ltd., Allied Office Products, Papirius s.r.o., and AsiaEc.
- 2007 – Joins US Green Building Council; opens first store in Puerto Rico and new Global Sourcing Office in Shenzhen, China.
- 2008 – Introduces “Office Depot Green” product line; unveils first "Green" store in Austin, TX and received LEED Gold Certification from USGBC; announces alliance with Netbizz Office Supplies in Singapore, AGE in Sweden, and bigboXX.com in Hong Kong.
- 2009 – Signs franchise agreement with M.H. Alshaya Co.; opens first store in Kuwait
Online
The domain officedepot.com attracted at least 37 million visitors annually according to a 2008 Compete.com survey.[10]
Private label brands
In addition to selling many nationally recognized name brands, Office Depot sells products under several store brands, including:
- Ativa, for shredders, telephones and certain computer hardware components such as LCD monitors, CDs, keyboards, and USB drives
- Break Escapes, for coffee, snacks, and other break room supplies and water
- Christopher Lowell, for office furniture, in association with the television personality
- Foray, for pens, pencils, highlighters, correction tape, and other writing instruments, as well as CD cases
- Niceday, for most standard office supplies
- Office Depot brand, for most standard office supplies and technology such as staples, binders, file folders, remanufactured ink & toner, etc.
- Office Depot Green, for environmentally preferable office products
- RealSpace, for office furniture
- TUG, for backpacks, BookSocks, and other school supplies
Customer Incentive Programs
Ink Cartridge Recycling
Office Depot has a program set up to encourage customers to recycle their used ink cartridges. Members of the Office Depot Worklife Rewards program can bring in empty cartridges for recycling to an Office Depot store. Customers receive $3 back in rewards (paid in the form of an Office Depot Reward card) for each cartridge recycled, up to 5 cartridges per day. More cartridges can be recycled, but rewards will only be issued up to 5 per day.[11]
Only inkjet cartridges that contain an internal printhead qualify for the program. This includes the majority of HP and Lexmark produced cartridges as well as the Office Depot remanufactured brand version of those cartridges. It also includes a very limited number of newer Canon cartridges. Cartridges that do not contain printheads do not qualify. Some cartridges contain electrical contacts that may be confused as being a printhead, but these contacts are only to allow communication with the printer for purposes of measuring ink levels or to determine whether or not the cartridge has expired. Most toner and toner/drum units can be recycled, but not those that are simply plastic toner containers such as many fax machine ink produced by Brother Industries and Panasonic. This program excludes ink tanks, such as almost all Epson brand inks. As of July 12, 2009 Office Depot accepts all brands of ink cartridges, including ink tanks previously excluded for recycling.
Office Depot Worklife Rewards
On June 1, 2006, Office Depot launched the Worklife Rewards program which combined several benefits of the former "Advantage Reward" and Star Teacher program. It offered 10% rewards on the total amount spent past $200 (excluding computers, monitors, UPS shipping and postage stamp purchases) in a three-month period, with no cap on the amount of rewards that could be earned. Office Depot brand ink qualified for a double credit 10% reward. Theoretically, if an individual spent $50,000 in a three-month period, they would earn $2,500 in rewards credits. The credits are issued on a store gift card. For Design, Print, & Ship services, 15% rewards were given on all purchases past $35.
On September 1, 2007, the Worklife Rewards program was relaunched as Worklife Rewards 10% Plus to issue a return of 10% on all ink, toner, paper and Design, Print, & Ship services, and 1% of all other qualifying purchases to members (excluding laptops, desktops, monitors, and TVs).[12] There are no rewards granted for warranties, postage stamps, or other services. Unlike the previous payout period system, the member must exceed a payout of $10 before a gift card will be issued. The accumulation period for points is no longer three months, but rather until a member gains enough points to receive a gift card.[13]
Worklife Rewards members also receive exclusive coupons through postal mail and email as well in store savings on select items.
STAR Teacher Program
The STAR Teacher Program is specifically for educators and school administrators, and incorporates the benefits of the Office Depot Worklife Program. In addition to Worklife benefits, the STAR program also carries a 15% discount on copy center purchases in addition to the 15% reward for copy center purchases past $35. There is no longer a 5% discount on other items. There are also many events at the Office Depot stores for teachers, including bi-annual Teacher Appreciation Breakfasts that offer free breakfast and giveaways for teachers.
5% Back To Schools Program
The 5% Back To School Program contributes a portion of a purchase to a local school as a store credit that the school may use to purchase Office Depot merchandise. Schools must register with the program to receive the store credit. Some merchandise does not qualify for the program.
Sponsorships
Office Depot previously owned the naming rights to an indoor arena in Sunrise, Florida. Called Office Depot Center from 2002 to 2005, it was subsequently renamed BankAtlantic Center after the arena lost exposure because of the NHL lockout.
In 2009, Office Depot began sponsoring the Tony Stewart owned and driven #14 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup stock car racing series. In previous years, Office Depot had been the primary sponsor of the #99 Ford, owned by Roush Fenway Racing and driven by Carl Edwards.
Office Depot currently sponsors FreeRice, a program to fight world hunger.
Activities per country
Stores owned by and operated under the Office Depot name [14]
Stores operating with the Office Depot name under joint venture / license agreements [15]
Mexico (with Soriana's joint venture)
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Panama
Thailand [16]
References
- ^ Yahoo! Finance, Office Depot, Inc. (ODP) Income Statement, [1], Retrieved 2009-10-26.
- ^ Yahoo! Finance, Office Depot, Inc. (ODP) Income Statement, [2], Retrieved 2009-10-26.
- ^ Yahoo! Finance, Office Depot, Inc. (ODP) Income Statement, [3], Retrieved 2009-10-26.
- ^ About.com: Retail Industry, "Office Depot Store Closing Sales, Layoffs, Locations, History, Trivia, Mission," [4], Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ About.com: Retail Industry, "Office Depot Store Closing Sales, Layoffs, Locations, History, Trivia, Mission," [5], Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ Idea Group Publishing, "Office Depot's E-Commerce Evolution," [6], Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ CNNMoney.com, "Diversified dollars: 7 corporate programs," [7], Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ internetretailer.com, "Office Depot to acquire Computers4Sure.com and Solutions4Sure.com," [8], Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ BusinessWeek.com, "Steve Odland, Executive Profile and Biography" [9], Retrieved 2009-11-05.
- ^ Compete.com, Site Profile for officedepot.com, [10], Retrieved 2009-10-26.
- ^ "Office Depot Worklife Rewards Program". http://www.myworkliferewards.com/loyalty/smartView.do?code=InkDepot. Retrieved 2009-10-02.
- ^ Bohen, Colleen (2007-09-24). "TWICE: Office Depot Expands Rewards Program". http://www.twice.com/article/CA6480927.html?industryid=23098. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
- ^ "Office Depot Worklife Rewards Program". http://www.myworkliferewards.com/customerservice/tc.asp#tc_wlr. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
- ^ Office Depot - 2008 Annual Report, [11], Retrieved 2009-10-26.
- ^ Office Depot - 2008 Annual Report, [12], Retrieved 2009-10-26.
- ^ "Office Depot Company Information - SEC Filings". 2008-02-26. http://investor.officedepot.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=94746&p=irol-sec. Retrieved 2008-03-19.
External links
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