Office Depot Buys Controlling Interest in Chinese Firm Oct 1, 2006 6:40 PM
, By Jim Tierney
JobZone
Search and post jobs for the Multichannel Merchant. Including jobs for brand & agency marketers, e-commerce, catalog marketers, ops & fulfillment, direct marketing and more.
The $14.4 billion Office
Depot announced Thursday that it acquired a controlling interest in AsiaEC, one
of the largest dealers of office products and services in China.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
AsiaEC is
headquartered in Beijing and has offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.
The company, which does not have any stores, has 500 employees supporting its
contract sales, direct mail, and Internet businesses.
Brian Levine, vice
president of corporate communications for Delray Beach, FL-based Office Depot,
told MULTICHANNEL MERCHANT that the acquisition is part of the company’s international
expansion plans, a priority within the company.
“AsiaEC is a
fascinating company,” Levine says. “It’s been in existence for about six years
now. It’s focused on b-to-b delivery and operates in several of the key markets
in China.
AsiaEC typically targets large corporate customers, including multinationals,
and also does considerable business with medium-size customers.”
Tim Liu, founder/CEO
of AsiaEC, said in a statement: “Combining Office Depot’s multichannel sales
expertise with AsiaEC’s proven, scalable business infrastructure will give
customers throughout China
an even wider array of solutions.” AsiaEC will operate under the Office Depot
International division.
As of July, Office
Depot had 1,071 stores in North America as well as
stores that are company-owned, licensed, or franchised in other parts of the
world.In late August, Office Depot
announced the acquisition of Papyrus, a supplier of office products and
services in Eastern Europe. Based in the Czech
Republic, Papirius also has operations in Lithuania,
Hungary, and Slovakia.
And in May, Office
Depot had announced the acquisition of Allied Office Products, the largest
privately held office products company in the U.S. Clifton, NJ-based Allied has
annual revenue of more than $300 million and operates 15 sales offices from New
York to California. It sells primarily through its roughly 300 account
executives and offers online procurement.
