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$10 billion can buy a lot of sticky pads King of the office-product superstores, Office Depot has over 950 stores in North America and overseas, making it the largest seller of office products in the world. Catering to small-to-midsize businesses, as well as home offices and individuals, Office Depot serves larger companies with a national delivery network started in 1990, which now accounts for almost one third of the company's sales. Today, the company generates $10 billion in revenue and leads rivals Staples and Office Max in average sales per store - $11 million. A novel strategy turns into an industry bonanza Pat Scher, Stephen Dougherty, and Jack Kopkin opened the first Office Depot in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida in 1986. Their strategy was to buy high-quality, brand-name products in large volume and at steep discounts, then pass savings on to customers through warehouse-style superstores. Their strategy paid off. Under current chairman David I. Fuente, Office Depot opened 16 stores in four new states after going public in 1988. The acquisitions of rival Office Club, H.Q. Office International, Eastman Office Products and other contract stationers gave Office Depot a solid presence throughout the U.S. and Canada. It opened 60 new stores in 1995, plues it added locations in Mexico and Poland. Staples who? The proposed merger with the #2 office-product chain Staples, which would have created a company with more than 1,100 stores, was stopped by a government antitrust suit in 1997. Undaunted, Office Depot continued its breakneck expansion, acquiring Viking Products for $2.7 billion, opening offices in Europe and Japan, launching two Web sites, and unveiling a sophisticated $40 million advertising campaign. The company also has an agreement with Stamps.com to provide postage for small businesses, and with Microsoft to offer its products and services via Microsoft's various venues. And in June 2000 the company announced it would sell 2Wire digital subscriber line and home networking products through its retail stores. Takin' care of business... on the Internet Office Depot has so far lead rivals Staples and OfficeMax in shifting to the Internet, introducing two Web sites in early 1998 designed for both its traditional customer base (Officedepot.com) and large corporations. The company was named by Fortune magazine one of the "top 10 companies that do e-commerce right." In 1999 the company brought in $350 million in online sales and earned a profit on its Internet operations. With an efficient national delivery network and strong retail marketing, Office Depot, analysts say, will reap benefits from its growing Web turf sooner than its rivals. The company has expanded its Web offerings overseas, launching site for Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Office Depot expects the Internet to ultimately represent all of the company's contract sales business and about half of total sales. Stock price woes Despite its highly successful Internet strategy, Office Depot has seen its stock slump - and slump more. The stock plummeted 30 percent in one day in August 1999 after the company announced its profits would be lower than expected. The stock continued to slide, and fell another 30 percent in one day in May 2000 after the company's earnings again fell below expectations. From a high of $25 in April 1999, the stock was trading at around $6 in June 2000. Company executives have admitted that they may have grown too fast, and have pledged to slow down new store growth. The company reorganized its merchandising department and reshuffled most of its upper management in an effort to reverse the continually declining share price.
Although Office Depot hires mostly from advertising responses, the company has just created a new managerial position to oversee campus recruitment. "We'll probably shift to more college hiring as our program matures," says one insider. "With a potential of over 100 new stores opening this year, we have a critical need for Store Managers and Assistant Store Managers. To fill those needs, we're going to recruit more heavily from campuses in the future." Interviews usually consist of three rounds, each time with a more senior manager with the help of district human resources "specialists." Interviews are describe as "informal" and "relaxed." "Our interview 'style' is behavioral interviewing and is not intended to be 'stressful,'" says one employee. Adds another, "waiting for the background check was the hardest part." Office Depot currently offers two management trainee programs: College Management Trainee (Store Division) and Sales Management Trainee (Sales Division). Office Depot posts employment information on its home page, located at www.officedepot.com/jobs. The site features detailed job descriptions and information on applying. Jobs are available in Finance, Accounting, Information Systems, Human Resources, Sales, Merchandising, Marketing, and Advertising. Interested parties can e-mail, post, or fax resumes to the company's headquarters or the specific store they hope to work for. The company also accepts referrals and walk-in applicants.
Is it the weather? If you want to work at Office Depot, the best bet is to snag a job at the company's headquarters in Delray Beach, Florida. Employees describe the culture and atmosphere as "supportive" and "informal". "We have three corporate buildings about 2 miles from the ocean," says one employee. "Advantages of working in this area include the weather, a relatively low stress environment, the weather, a wide variety of housing, and the weather." Benefits include the usual dental, medical, disability, and 401k plans. Dress code is business casual Monday through Thursday with many employees wearing jeans on Fridays. Don't mention Florida to these people District store employees are not as content as their Florida counterparts. "Office Depot is a corporate giant with a bogged-down, bloated, lumbering corporate sales model," says one regional sales manager. "They will work their managers to death but if you survive (to the store manager level or corporate level) it will be well worth your while." Adds another employee, "Unless you plan to stick it out for Customer Service Manager, Copy Center Manager or above, it's not the place to stay too long as a regular hourly associate. When it comes to corporate culture, it is secluded to the District Managers and above. At the store I worked at, the DM and the Regional VP had an in-house office, and all of you ever saw of them was the coming in and out of the store."
Department HRRC - Code BSDWWW 2200 Old Germantown Rd.1 Delray Beach FL 33445 (561) 438-7241
Business machines;General office supplies;Office Furniture;National Delivery network
Best Buy;Boise Cascade Office Products;Circuit City;CompUSA;Corporate Express;Kinko's;OfficeMax;Staples;United Stationers;U.S. Office Products;Wal-Mart More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
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