Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), is one of the world's largest office supply retail store chains, with over 1,000 stores worldwide in 23 countries. It has a strong catalog and e-commerce operations which cater to both the general public and to large corporate clients. It is headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida.

History

Office Depot was founded in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida (near Fort Lauderdale) in 1986 by three partners: Pat Sher, Stephen Dougherty, and Jack Kopkin. Sher, the company's first CEO, died the next year from leukemia. The company retained professional executive recruiters (so-called "headhunters") to find a replacement for Sher. The new Chairman and CEO turned out to be a Sherwin-Williams executive named David Fuente.

At first reluctant to take the job, Fuente embraced the concept of an office products superstore and immediately launched an aggressive nationwide expansion program. To finance it, he arranged for an initial public offering of stock in 1988. In 1991, Office Depot expanded to the West Coast region with the purchase of competitor Office Club. By 1993, it was operating over 350 stores in the U.S. and Canada.

The company began to run into problems in the late 1990s when many key North American markets became saturated with too many of the big three office supply chains: Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Staples. In 1996, Office Depot attempted to merge with Staples, but the deal fell through when the Federal Trade Commission refused to approve the merger on antitrust grounds. In search of new opportunities, Office Depot began to expand overseas to many more countries. In 1998, it launched its public Web site and merged with the catalog company Viking Office Products.

Unfortunately, during the dot-com collapse in late 2000, the company's sales took a dive. Over 70 stores were closed and Fuente was reportedly forced out of his job as CEO; he was replaced by the head of the company's international operations, Bruce Nelson. On October 4, 2004, Office Depot announced that Neil R. Austrian, former President of the National Football League, was succeeding Nelson as Interim Chairman and CEO. Succeeding Austrian was Steve Odland, formerly CEO of Autozone.

Private Brands

In addition to selling many nationally recognized name brands, Office Depot sells products under several "home" brands, including:

• Ativa, for shredders, telephones and certain computer hardware components such as floppy drives and USB drives
• Castlebridge, for executive briefcases and portfolios
• Foray, for pens, pencils, highlighters, correction tape, and other writing instruments
• Furniture at Work, for office furniture
• Christopher Lowell, for office furniture
• Office Depot brand, for most standard office supplies such as staples, binders, file folders, remanufactured ink & toner, etc.

Customer Incentive Programs

Ink Cartridge Recycling

Similar to other office supply chains, Office Depot has a program set up to encourage customers to recycle their used ink cartridges. Once per day, a customer has the opportunity to drop off empty cartridges for either a free ream of Office Depot brand Enviro-Copy paper made with post-consumer recycled materials, or to get a discount on a purchase. Previously, a $2.50 discount was available towards the purchase of a new ink cartridge. Since February 12, 2006, the discount was increased to $3.00 and can be used towards any purchase over $3.00.

While certain store managers may bend this rule, 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. 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 produced by Brother.

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 current Star Teacher program. It offers 5% rewards on all purchases 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 can be earned. Office Depot brand ink qualify 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 Copy.Print.Ship services, 15% rewards are given on all purchases past $35.

Worklife members also receive exclusive coupons through postal mail and email as well in store savings on select items.