Office Depot and UPS Join Forces to Launch New Shipping Service Concept
Packaging & Shipping Service Centers Debut in All 23 Atlanta-Area Stores
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP), the world's largest seller of office products, and UPS, the world's largest shipping company, today announced a strategic partnership to combine the convenience of Office Depot stores with the global reach of UPS shipping service. The two have created a "one-stop-shipping" concept that provides small businesses, SOHOs (small office, home office) and other Office Depot customers convenient access to UPS rates and services as well as a full range of packaging products and shipping supplies.
Atlanta is the site of the first market-wide launch of these UPS Shipping Centers, which are now open in all 23 local Office Depot stores. The Company expects to expand the concept into additional markets in the coming months.
The 23 Atlanta-area Office Depot superstores offer a complete line of UPS air express services, UPS Guaranteed Commercial Ground and residential ground service, as well as UPS International delivery services. Additionally, the stores will soon offer UPS SonicAir Best Flight service for urgent same-day delivery as well as UPS Document Exchange, a high-tech Internet service for delivery of digital files over the web.
Customers can drop off UPS Air packages at any Atlanta-area store as late as 7 p.m. and UPS Ground shipments will be picked up at 5:30 p.m. Each Office Depot store will prepare packages and shipping documents for customers, and the store will accept air and ground packages processed through UPS Internet Shipping at www.ups.com . Either way, customers can track each shipment with UPS's reliable state-of-the-art package tracking, available on the web at www.ups.com or by calling UPS customer service at 1-800-PICKUPS.
"This new strategic relationship between Office Depot and UPS offers several unique advantages to our customers in the Atlanta area," said Shawn McGhee, Office Depot's Executive Vice President of Merchandising & Marketing. "Not only does Office Depot offer the convenience of shipping via UPS as late as 7 p.m., but our customers can do so at UPS' published rates. In other words, UPS shipping -- like all of our office products and services -- is available at Office Depot's everyday low prices.
"In addition to UPS shipping, this store also carries a full range of packing and shipping supplies, including mail tubes, corrugated boxes, cushion wrap, and Styrofoam peanuts. We also have the capability to custom pack and safely secure any parcel prior to shipping," McGhee added. "Each of the 23 Office Depot stores in Atlanta can now offer the unmatchable combination of both one-stop-shopping and one-stop-shipping, all at the same convenient location."
UPS is the world's largest express carrier and largest package delivery company, providing the industry's most extensive offering of services to more than 200 countries and territories around the world. UPS recently unveiled the world's fastest package tracking system with the deployment of the first- ever device to both collect and send delivery information at virtually the same time. Headquartered in Atlanta, UPS resides on the Web at ups.com .
Office Depot, Inc., the world's largest seller of office products, is an industry leader in every customer channel: superstores, commercial, contract, catalog, direct mail and Internet. The Company currently operates 795 stores in the United States, Canada, France, and Japan, as well as a national business-to-business delivery network that includes more than 60 local sales offices, 30 delivery centers and 2,000 trucks. In addition, the Company's seven regional call centers (1-888-GO-DEPOT) and award-winning U.S. public Web site at www.officedepot.com are open for business 24-7. Office Depot and its wholly owned subsidiary, Viking Office Products, currently have operations in 19 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, Office Depot's sales for the first half of 1999 were $4.9 billion, an 11% increase over the $4.4 billion in sales during the first six months of 1998. The Company's total sales for 1998 were $9.0 billion, an 11% increase over the $8.1 billion in sales during 1997. Office Depot's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500.
SOURCE Office Depot, Inc.
CO: Office Depot, Inc.; UPS
ST: Florida, Georgia
IN: REA
SU: JVN
09/10/1999 07:00 EDT prnewswire.com |
