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| 1986
|
Office
Depot, Inc. founded in Florida by Pat Sher, Jack Kopkin
and Stephen Dougherty. Opened our first store in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. |
|
| 1988 |
Initial
public offering of common stock.
Introduced full service Copy & Print Center in our stores.
|
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| 1990 |
Opened,
under the Viking brand, our first distribution center
in the United Kingdom. |
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| 1991
|
Acquisition
of The Office Club, Inc. |
|
| 1992 |
Acquisition
of H.Q. Office International, Inc., including the Great
Canadian Office Supplies Warehouse stores, in western
Canada. |
|
| 1993
|
Entrance
into the contract stationer business via the acquisition
of two leading Contract stationers: Wilson Stationary
& Printing Company and Eastman Office Products Corporation.
Opened,
under the Viking brand, our first call center and distribution
center in Australia.
|
|
| 1994 |
Opened,
through separate international licensing agreements, first
Office Depot stores in Israel and Colombia. |
|
| 1995 |
Opened,
through an international licensing agreement, first
Office Depot store in Poland.
Opened,
through a joint venture agreement, first Office Depot
store in Mexico. Opened, under the Viking brand, our
first distribution center in Germany and Ireland and
first call center in The Netherlands.
|
|
| 1996 |
Opened,
through a joint venture agreement, first Office Depot
store in France. Opened, under the Viking brand, our first
distribution center in the Netherlands. |
|
| 1997 |
Opened,
through separate international licensing agreements, first
Office Depot stores in Hungary and Thailand. Opened, through
a joint venture agreement, first Office Depot store in
Japan. Opened, under the Viking brand, our first call
center in Austria. |
|
| 1998
|
Launched
www.officedepot.com
public Web site. Viking Office Products becomes wholly
owned subsidiary of Office Depot. Acquired remaining 50%
of our French joint venture operations. Marketing alliance
with Telepost, Inc. to offer Web based teleconferencing,
presentation and messaging services on OfficeDepot.com
Opened, under the Viking brand, our first call center
and distribution center in Italy. |
|
| 1999 |
Acquired
remaining 50% of our Japanese joint venture operations.
Join forces with UPS to offer shipping services in our
stores. Viking launched it's first European e-commerce
Web site,
www.viking-direct.uk.co,
in the United Kingdom.
Viking
began business in Japan and opened our first call center
and distribution center.
|
|
| 2000
|
Viking
launched e-commerce sites in Germany, www.viking.de,
The Netherlands, www.vikingdirect.nl,
Italy, www.vikingop.it,
Japan, www.vikingop.co.jp,
Australia, www.vikingop.com.au,
and France, www.vikingdirect.fr
. Office Depot launched e-commerce site in Japan, www.officedepot.co.jp
and France, www.officedepot.fr.
European Business Services Division is created to
better service medium to large sized corporate accounts
in Europe through specialized sales forces, individualized
pricing for key corporate accounts, and overnight order
fulfillment.
Office
Depot launched Vendor Extranet to provide Office Depot
suppliers with a secured Internet access to monitor
critical business information between both parties.
|
|
| 2001 |
Introduced
new phone-in ordering process with voice commerce portal
technology powered by NetByTel.
Commenced nationwide product donation program with Gifts In Kind International.
Named BBDO New York as advertising agency of record.
Office Depot acquires office products business of Sands & McDougall in Australia.
Launched Microsoft bCentral web-based services on OfficeDepot.com.
Office Depot acquires its first online office supplies business, officesupplies.com.
Launched first contract Office Depot branded Web site http://bsdnet.officedepot.co.uk. in the United Kingdom.
Office Depot acquires 4Sure.com and the businesses of its two Web-based retail outlets, Computers4Sure.com and Solutions4Sure.com.
European Business Services Division expanded into Ireland, the Netherlands and France.
Viking e-commerce site launched in Austria, www.vikingdirekt.at, the Company’s 14th unique Web site around the world.
|
| 2002 |
In January 2002, commenced Viking direct mail business in Switzerland.
Viking e-commerce site launched in Ireland, http:/www.vikingdirect.ie,
the Company's 15th unique Web site around the world.
Office Depot's second corporate customized contract Internet site
launched in the Netherlands at http://bsdnet.officedepot.nl.
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