Staples 2002 Annual Report Download - page 4

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Over the past year, we strengthened our commitment to the community and reinforced our
pledge to preserve the environment. We launched Staples’ Foundation for Learning,
designed with a mission to support job skills and education for all people, with an emphasis
on disadvantaged youth. We were pleased to award the first grant to the Boys & Girls
Clubs of America, and became one of their national sponsors. We also bolstered our
dedication to environmental stewardship to protect and preserve natural resources and
heightened our focus on the promotion of recycled content products, chain-wide recycling,
energy conservation, and educational initiatives for customers and associates. Working
closely with shareholders, consultants, suppliers and environmental non-government
organizations, we developed a revolutionary new paper procurement policy, reaffirming our
commitment to protect forest resources. Environmentalists commended Staples for taking
the lead in our industry, and recognized the value of this collaboratively designed policy
that supports the best interest of the environment, our customers and our shareholders.
We’re proud of our achievements to date and we’ll continue our focus on realizing our
environmental goals.
Looking ahead, Staples is well positioned to create value for our shareholders. In the near
term, we have some big opportunities. A crucial objective for 2003 is bringing to life our
new “easy” brand promise. Customer research showed us that a great assortment of
products and everyday low prices are not enough to differentiate us from our competitors;
our busy, time-starved customers want an easy, hassle-free shopping experience. We have
already begun to deliver on our promise to make buying office products easy with enhanced
in-store signage, easier to navigate websites, the launch of our ink and toner in-stock
guarantee and our copy center quality promise, and there is more in the pipeline. Other
significant goals for the year are executing a program to transform our supply chain, getting
the most from our strategic sourcing initiatives, and driving profitability improvement in
both our lowest performing stores and Staples’ catalog businesses in North America and in
Europe. At the same time, we’ll keep our focus on the basics, and on a culture of
operational excellence built around customers. With this focus and the momentum we’ve
created in our business, we expect to continue to deliver solid results.
Most importantly, we thank our 58,000 associates for their steadfast loyalty and dedication,
and we thank our customers, our suppliers, and our shareholders for their continued
support.
Ron Sargent
President and Chief Executive Officer
Tom Stemberg
Chairman