Good afternoon,
The on-going spate of mergers, takeovers and closures across the office products industry shows no sign of abating due to nature taking its course in the digital age, the impact of cheap imports, rampant discounting and, of course, the might of Officeworks.
As reminder of how the OP industry has changed over the past 20 years, consider this:
In 1990, W.C. Penfold had sales of $65 million across 40 stores. In 1994 the iconic stationers reported a 200 per cent increase in profit.
In the same year, Coles opened the first ‘big box’ Officeworks store.
In 1997, after an intensive buying spree (investigated at one point by the ACCC), Corporate Express (Staples/Winc) reported turnover of $300 million and 1200 employees.
In 2002, Corporate Express reported record sales of $633 million and a 28 per cent increase in profit to $32 million, having completed 11 acquisitions in 2001/2002.
In 2004, W.C. Penfold was put up for sale as administrators moved in with $6 million owed to creditors.
In 2017, private equity firm Platinum Equity completed the acquisition of the loss-making Staples business in Australia and New Zealand for an undisclosed sum, later absorbing loss-making OfficeMax.
What happens over the next 20 years is anyone’s guess but there’s a lesson in there somewhere.
Regards,
Barrie Parsons
Editor & Publisher
[email protected]
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