Office Depot to Close 50 More Stores in the U.S.

According to Office Depot’s latest annual report, it will close about 50 stores in the United States this year. Last year, the company closed 181 stores following its closing of 168 locations in 2014. Office Depot has said that it would close at least 400 stores by the end of 2016, as part of its buyout of OfficeMax in 2013 – the closing of these 50 stores satisfies that plan.

According The Street, fewer Office Depot stores in operation has also led to Office Depot’s consolidation of its supply chain: through the end of 2015, the integration of Office Depot with Office Max has resulted in the closing of eight distribution centers and cross-dock facilities across the United States.  By the end of 2015, Office Depot operated 1,564 retail stores in North America, and 45 distribution centers and cross-dock facilities in the United States and Canada.

Rival Staples has proposed a buyout of Office Depot, but hasn’t yet gained regulatory approval. While the Staples-Office Depot merger has been approved in Europe, in December 2015, the U.S. Federal Trace Commission filed an anti-trust lawsuit that seeks to block the merger.

More Resources

December 2015: FTC Sues to Block Staples’ Acquisition of Office Depot