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Local Staples bucks the trend
Yellowknife location may be saving grace as southern stores face closure

Walter Strong
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, March 12, 2014

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Yellowknife Staples location may not be one of the stores to close following last week's announcement that Staples Inc. will close up to 225 stores across North America by the end of 2015.

The Yellowknife location, which employs more than 20 staff, may be remote enough - and profitable enough - to avoid the chopping block.

"Generally, they haven't decided which locations they want to close," said Yellowknife Staples service manager T.J. Singh. "The thing is, we are in one of the remote areas. There's less chance - you could even say there's no chance - that they're going to close down the Yellowknife location."

"Sales are good," Singh added.

Staples serves all the NWT and Nunavut from Yellowknife. The large service area may be enough to place some distance between the Yellowknife store and the chopping block, but Staples Canada head office in Richmond Hill, Ont. is tight-lipped on which Canadian stores may be closing, or even how many will be shuttered.

"As customers shift online, we are taking aggressive action to right-size our retail footprint," stated Staples Canada spokesperson Alessandra Saccal in an email to Yellowknifer.

"We don't have additional details to share on specific locations in North America and no specific details, at this time, regarding the Canadian market," she added.

Staples operates under two Canadian banners - Staples Business Depot and Bureau en Gros - with more than 300 stores across the country. Across North America, Staples today has 1,846 locations.

A March 6, 2014 press release stated the company plans to shed $500 million in costs by the end of 2015. The announced store closures will shed Staples of more than 10 per cent of its North American stores.

Total fourth quarter revenue was down 10.6 per cent over the same quarter last year, from $6.568 billion in 2012 to $5.873 billion in 2013.

North American store and online sales dropped 6.1 per cent in 2013 compared to 2012, a loss of more than $725 million in sales.

In 2013, Staples lost 32 U.S. locations (they closed 34 stores but opened two new ones), and closed eight stores in Canada.

"A year ago, we announced a plan to fundamentally reinvent our company," stated Ron Sargent, Staples chairman and chief executive officer in the release. "With nearly half of our sales generated online today, we're meeting the changing needs of business customers and taking aggressive action to reduce costs and improve efficiency."

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