OfficeMax 2008 Annual Report Download - page 5

PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
As used in this 2008 Annual Report on Form 10-K, the terms ‘‘OfficeMax,’’ the ‘‘Company,’’ and
‘‘we’’ include OfficeMax Incorporated and its consolidated subsidiaries and predecessors. Our
Securities and Exchange Commission (‘‘SEC’’) filings, which include this Annual Report on
Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all related
amendments, are available free of charge on our website at www.officemax.com and can be found
by clicking on ‘‘About us,’’ ‘‘Investors’’ and then ‘‘SEC filings.’’ Our SEC filings are available as
soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the
SEC. Last year, we filed our annual Chief Executive Officer certification, without qualification, dated
May 16, 2008 with the New York Stock Exchange. Attached as exhibits to this Form 10-K you will
find certifications of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer required under
Sections 302 and 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
General Overview
OfficeMax is a leader in both business-to-business and retail office products distribution. We
provide office supplies and paper, print and document services, technology products and solutions
and furniture to large, medium and small businesses, government offices, and consumers.
OfficeMax customers are served by approximately 33,000 associates through direct sales, catalogs,
the Internet and retail stores. Our common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the
ticker symbol OMX, and our corporate headquarters is in Naperville, Illinois.
OfficeMax Incorporated (formerly Boise Cascade Corporation) was organized as Boise Payette
Lumber Company, a Delaware corporation, in 1931 as a successor to an Idaho corporation formed
in 1913. In 1957, the Company’s name was changed to Boise Cascade Corporation. On
December 9, 2003, Boise Cascade Corporation acquired 100% of the voting securities of
OfficeMax, Inc. That acquisition more than doubled the size of our office products distribution
business and expanded that business into the U.S. retail channel. In connection with the sale of our
paper, forest products and timberland assets described below, the Company’s name was changed
from Boise Cascade Corporation to OfficeMax Incorporated, and the names of our office products
segments were changed from Boise Office Solutions, Contract and Boise Office Solutions, Retail to
OfficeMax, Contract and OfficeMax, Retail. The Boise Cascade Corporation and Boise Office
Solutions names were used in documents furnished to or filed with the SEC prior to the sale of our
paper, forest products and timberland assets.
On October 29, 2004, we sold our paper, forest products and timberland assets to affiliates of
Boise Cascade, L.L.C., a new company formed by Madison Dearborn Partners LLC (the ‘‘Sale’’).
With the Sale, we completed the Company’s transition, begun in the mid-1990s, from a
predominately commodity manufacturing-based company to an independent office products
distribution company. On October 29, 2004, as part of the Sale, we invested $175 million in the
securities of affiliates of Boise Cascade, L.L.C.
We present information pertaining to each of our segments and the geographic areas in which
they operate in Note 15, Segment Information, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in
‘‘Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data’’ of this Form 10-K.
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