Office equipment and supply giants boom.Office Depot Office Depot (NYSE: ODP) is one of the world's leading suppliers 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, , Staples plan more Southland stores Sales are surging at L.A. County's two largest office products retailers, which have been expanding and remodeling remodeling /re·mod·el·ing/ (re-mod´el-ing) reorganization or renovation of an old structure. bone remodeling vigorously, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. this week's List of 15 largest office equipment and supply companies. Sales at Office Depot stores in L.A. County that have been open at least 12 months surged 17 percent during 1995's third quarter, said company spokesman Gary Schweikhart. No. 1-ranked Office Depot recently opened 10 new stores here and now operates more stores in the county than does Staples. It increased its total from 25 during 1994 to 35 now, according to The List. No. 2-ranked Staples added only two stores during the same period, in North Hollywood and Northridge, bringing its total in L.A. County to 32 from 30 in 1994, according to The List. But the chains don't plan on stopping there. "There's tremendous opportunity for additional growth (in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, ) over the next five years," said Jim Peters Jim Peters (born 1937) is a New Zealand politician, born in Kawakawa. He is of Ngati Wai and Clan McInnes descent. He went to school at Whananaki Primary and Wesley College, Auckland. Further education followed at Auckland University and Auckland Teachers Training College. , regional vice president of stores for Delray Beach Delray Beach, resort city (1990 pop. 47,181), Palm Beach co., SE Fla., on the Atlantic coast; settled 1895, inc. 1911. Mostly residential, Delray Beach is also the trade center for a citrus-fruit and vegetable-growing region. , Fla.-based Office Depot. Room to grow "I believe there is still a lot of room in L.A. and Orange counties to grow in," said Tim Wu Tim Wu (吳修銘) is a professor at Columbia Law School and a writer for Slate Magazine. He is best known for popularizing the concept of network neutrality. Professor Wu's specialty is copyright and telecommunications policy. , director of sales and marketing at Staples. Staples plans to open four more outlets in L.A. County during 1996, said District Manager George Metcalf. Schweikhart, though, said he would not disclose how many outlets Office Depot plans to open here next year. Framingham, Mass.-based Staples has remodeled about 15 of its L.A. County stores this year. Those have better lighting and signage, carpeted furniture departments, tile floors elsewhere and expanded office equipment departments, Wu said. Looking at jobs, Office Depot added several hundred posts in L.A. County as it opened new stores. The company now employs 1,400 workers here compared with 1,000 during 1994. Staples outlets' workforce here also grew during the same period, from 400 to 500, Metcalf said. Staples added five to 10 new employees to each store it remodeled, he added. Meanwhile, some office supply companies are absorbing and others are passing along the recent rise in the price of paper. Staples is absorbing most of the cost "to try to keep within the competition," Wu said. However, No. 5-ranked United Stationers United Stationers NASDAQ: USTR is the largest wholesale distributor of office products in North America, with sales in excess of $4 billion. Its brands include Azerty, a computer products distributor, and Lagasse, a sanitary maintenance company. , an office product wholesaler, is passing the increased cost airing to its customers, said Art Hiatt, vice president of the Western Region for the Des Plaines, Ill.-based firm. It is passing the costs along because the company's profit margins on copy machine paper, the primary paper product it sells, are only a couple of percentage points, Hiatt said. As a result, the retail price of a case of such paper has risen this year from $30 to $40, he said. |
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