County School District in Florida has received a refund cheque of almost $300,000 from Office Depot. The refund of $297,063 relates to a pricing option switch in the district’s US Communities office supplies contract – a switch that the district says was not authorised.

Lee County Schools stopped buying supplies under the US Communities contract in January 2009, switching to a multiple vendor contract that still included Office Depot as one of the suppliers. Now, Lee County School District Superintendent, James Browder, says that he intends to inform Office Depot that the district will no longer do business with the company.

Based on the lack of integrity that Office Depot has demonstrated, I don’t believe we can continue doing business with them,” Browder was reported as saying, adding that he would send Depot a seven-day notice that the district’s Office Depot contract is terminated.

Browder also told the local press that he had accepted the Depot refund cheque on the condition that the district would not seek additional refunds for overcharges.

Lee County Public Schools is one of the 50 largest school districts in the US and spends around $1.7 million a year on its current office supplies contract. It is also the backyard of Office Depot whistle-blower David Sherwin, whose claims of overcharging led to the district auditing the US Communities contract. Sherwin contends that actual overcharging on the contract could amount to over $400,000.

-Source: Opi.net

Office Depot is closing an Orlando distribution centre with the loss of 125 jobs, while Staples is shutting down its distribution and warehouse in Canton, Georgia. The discontinuation of operations at this facility will result in 89 redundancies.

Depot notified the state Agency for Workforce Innovation of the closure in a letter on 10 February. The redundancies will be made between 13 April and 24 April.

As it continues to integrate its own delivery system with Corporate Express, a Staples review of its delivery networks has resulted in the company deciding that its Canton warehouse is not needed. The Canton distribution centre will be closed down by 16 June.

-Source: Opi.net

Office Depot says that is to close almost 10 percent of its stores in North America.

The company will close 112 stores in the US and Canada over the next three months, while an additional 14 stores will shut in 2009 as leases expire.

The stores to be closed are located in various geographic regions, including 45 in the central US, 40 in the northeast and Canada, 19 in the west and eight in the south and were all described as “underperforming”. In addition to the store closures, Depot will close six of its 33 North American distribution facilities and reduce the number of new store openings in 2009 to 20. And further cuts during the quarter were not ruled out with Depot considering “potentially restructuring businesses”.

The initial actions will result in a $40 million cash charge for severance for store, headquarters and field sales staff, and for lease payments on closed stores.
Between $230-260 million will also be tak/en as a non-cash charge relating to the write-downs of fixed assets and lease reserves on closed stores.

The moves, say Depot, will help to reduce capital expenditure in 2009 to less than $200 million and add $90 million to pre-tax earnings.
The cutbacks are not unexpected as Depot announced that it was undertaking a “strategic review” at the end of October. With the extra cash and non-cash charges and the likelihood of goodwill write-downs, Depot’s fourth quarter results outlook looks less than promising. But it didn’t look that good anyway, so it seems that the company has decided to take the hit when things are bad.

Whether these actions will lead to a fundamental improvement in Depot’s performance is another matter.

-Source: Opi.net

The State Auditor's Office says an office supply company overcharged North Carolina nearly $300,000 during a six-month period.

State Auditor Les Merritt said Wednesday that Office Depot overcharged the state between July and December 2007 by inflating the price of store-brand products included in its bid to the state, and changing the brand of items purchased.

Merritt said the Division of Purchase and Contract should have better monitored its Office Depot purchases. He said reports have shown the Florida-based company has overcharged four other states.

The state division disagreed with some of the auditor's findings but said it will work to implement the auditor's recommendations to prevent overcharging in the future. A message left Wednesday with Office Depot wasn't immediately returned.