OfficeMax 2015 Annual Report Download - page 9

Table of Contents
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We currently operate under the Office Depot and OfficeMax brand names. We hold trademark registrations domestically and worldwide and have numerous
other applications pending worldwide for the names “Office Depot”, “Viking”, “Ativa”, “Foray”, “Realspace”, “OfficeMax”, “TUL”, “WorkPro”, “Brenton
Studio”, “Highmark” and others. As with all domestic trademarks, our trademark registrations in the United States are for a ten year period and are renewable
every ten years, prior to their respective expirations, as long as the trademarks are used in the regular course of trade. We also hold issued patents and pending
patent applications domestically and internationally for certain private brand products, such as shredders, binders, and writing instruments.
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We operate in a highly competitive environment in all three Divisions. We compete with office supply stores, wholesale clubs, discount stores, mass
merchandisers, Internet-based companies, food and drug stores, computer and electronics superstores and direct marketing companies. These companies
compete with us in substantially all of our current markets. Increased competition in the office products markets, together with increased advertising, and
Internet-based search tools, has heightened price awareness among end-users. Such heightened price awareness has led to margin pressure on office products
and impacted our results. In addition to price, competition is also based on customer service, the quality and breadth of product selection and convenience.
Other office supply retail companies market similarly to us in terms of store format, pricing strategy, product selection and product availability in the markets
where we operate, primarily those in the United States. Some of our competitors are larger than us and have greater financial resources, which affords them
greater purchasing power, increased financial flexibility and more capital resources for expansion and improvement, which may enable them to compete more
effectively. We anticipate that in the future we will continue to face competition from these companies.
We believe our customer service and the efficiency and convenience for our customers from our combined contract and retail distribution channels help our
North American Business Solutions Division to compete with other business-to-business office products distributors.
We believe our North American Retail Division segment competes based on the quality of our customer service, our store formats, the breadth and depth of
our merchandise offering and our pricing.
Internationally, we compete on a similar basis to North America. Our wholly-owned entities in the International Division sell through contract and catalog
channels and operate retail stores in 17 countries. Additionally, our International Division provides office products and services in another 40 countries
through licensing and franchise agreements, cross-border transactions, alliances and other arrangements.
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As of January 23, 2016, we had approximately 49,000 employees worldwide. In certain international locations, changes in staffing or work arrangements may
need approval of local works councils or other bodies.
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