Office Depot Forecasts Store Openings

DELRAY BEACH, FL-Office Depot continues to step up its store-opening program despite what executives characterize as a “challenging” first quarter sales wise. The retailer has 150 North American stores on tap this year, as well as 200 units in 2008.

Most of the new stores will go into Office Depot’s existing markets, which, acknowledges Chuck Rubin, the company’s president of North American Retail, will impact the performance of stores already there. “The opening of stores as fill-in is likely to negatively impact the sales of existing stores,” he said, during Office Depot’s quarterly conference call. “We feel it is important to strengthen and maintain our position in core markets.”

During the first quarter, which ended March 31, same-store sales at Office Depot’s 1,042 stores in North America fell 3%. Total revenue crept up 3% to $1.8 billion, however, the division’s net income grew to $155 million, up from $135 million during the same year-ago period.