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To: The Duke of URL© who wrote (71363)	11/9/1999 1:49:00 PM
From: Elwood P. Dowd	Respond to of 97611

Tuesday November 9 1:24 PM ET OfficeMax Hit by Lower Net, Charge CLEVELAND (Reuters) - OfficeMax Inc., the office supply superstore chain, said on Tuesday its earnings fell in the third quarter before a $53 million charge to liquidate inventory turned that profit into a loss. Before the charge, OfficeMax said it earned $0.14 a share in the quarter, down from $0.27 per share a year earlier. The $0.14 per share figure, which matched analysts forecasts, compiled by First Call/Thomson Financial, included costs related to accelerating its supply-chain management program by one year. Including a markdown charge of about $53 million, after-tax, to cover the liquidation of inventory the company does not expect to keep in its product line, Cleveland-based OfficeMax had a loss of $37.4 million, or $0.33 a fully-diluted share, in the quarter. Sales in the quarter rose 13 percent to a record $1.30 billion from $1.15 billion a year earlier. Comparable store sales in the core business segment were up 3 percent, while those for the computer segment dropped 26 percent in keeping with the company's plan to modify that part of the operation. OfficeMax's stock was off 1/8 at 6-1/4 in New York Stock Exchange trading. The company said it opened 39 new superstores during the quarter, bringing to 91 the total new stores opened in the first nine months. It said all 115 new superstores planned for fiscal 1999 should be open by Thanksgiving. At the end of the quarter OfficeMax had 922 full-size superstores in over 370 markets. The company said it is committed to opening 50 to 75 domestic superstores next year. OfficeMax said e-Commerce sales rose nearly 600 percent in the quarter from the same period a year ago. Michael Feuer, OfficeMax chairman and chief executive, said the company will increase its investment in its Internet business with the goal of integrating its e-Commerce, catalog and retail stores to provide a seamless offering of its products to customers. OfficeMax said it is refining a store-within-a-store concept it has been working on with International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM - news)., and is testing offering a limited line of computers from makers such as Compaq Computer Corp (NYSE:CPQ - news). and Hewlett-Packard Co (NYSE:HWP - news). in other stores. IBM announced in October it would stop selling its consumer PCs in U.S. stores in early Info on 50,000+ Companies! (Enter Name or Ticker) Related Quotes CPQ HWP IBM DJIA NASDAQ S&P 500 ^IIX ^PSE 20 5/8 78 1/8 94 5/16 10608.45 3117.96 1363.65 394.74 713.17 -3/8 -1 1/4 +3/8 -110.40 -26.01 -13.36 -1.98 -4.69