www.wbjournal.com • Worcester Business Journal 29
25 YEARS: IMPACTFUL COMPANIES
T
he long-term viability of Staples, as
we reported last May, is in question.
It remains to be seen whether the
Framingham-based global office supply
retailer can handle major changes in its
marketplace.
The $23-billion publicly traded firm
began facing up to the changes in the
last two years, when it downsized its
traditional brick-and-mortar retail busi-
ness by closing 107 stores and placing a
heavier focus on Web sales. In March,
the firm announced plans to close up to
225 additional stores — more than 12
percent of its nearly 1,850 North
American locations — by the end of
next year, after fourth-quarter sales fell
11 percent.
Subsequently, Staples shareholders
voiced their displeasure with a new
executive-pay package and, in a non-
binding vote, called for an independent
board chairman. Executives failed to
qualify for annual bonuses in 2013 due
to the firm's poor stock performance.
Staples' travails underscore the power
of the Internet as a sales channel, and a
decreasing reliance by businesses on the
company's traditional office supply
products, which over the last two years
have fallen as a percentage of Staples'
revenue sources. The increasing ubiqui-
ty of information technology and the
growing use of the cloud are transform-
ing how businesses and consumers shop
for and use a wide variety of products
and services.
Staples, meanwhile, has been con-
ducting a sometimes-controversial one-
year trial of U.S. Postal Service retail
centers inside 82 of its stores, including
all six Central Massachusetts locations.
Staples
Staples is competing with
change - and the cloud. That
gives the Framingham-based
office supplies giant an urgent
"to do" item: shifting more
of its focus to Web-based
sales.
>> Continued on Page 31
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