Officeworks is a chain of Australian office supplies stores operated under parent company Wesfarmers. The company was established in the early 1990s by Coles Myer (which became Coles Group, now part of and owned by WA-based company Wesfarmers). Its head office is located in Bentleigh East, Melbourne. The store concept adopted by Officeworks was based on the US chain Office Depot.
Video Officeworks
History
Formation to 2008
The first Officeworks store opened in the inner city suburb of Richmond in Melbourne on 16 June 1994.
IT retailer Harris Technology, purchased by Coles Myer in 1999, became a subsidiary of Officeworks. Viking Australia (a subsidiary of Office Depot) was purchased by Coles Myer in December 2002 and was merged with Officeworks Direct to form Officeworks BusinessDirect, now known as Officeworks Business.
In late 2006 Officeworks opened its 100th store in South Yarra, just kilometres from the first store in Richmond. Following the purchase of Coles Group by Wesfarmers in November 2007, Officeworks and Harris Technology became part of Wesfarmers' Home Improvement and Office Supplies division.
Since 2008
Officeworks rebranded in 2008, revising its logo, uniforms, store department names, and slogan - "Lowest Prices Everyday". This positioned Officeworks as a low cost warehouse similar to that of its sister company Bunnings Warehouse. Officeworks also adopted the "Lowest Price Guarantee" similar to that found at Bunnings, where Officeworks offered to beat any competitor's price of an identical item by 5%. In 2011 Officeworks cut ties with paper supplier APRIL over claims that the paper supplier was illegally logging Indonesian forests.
Officeworks changed its slogan in August 2012 to "Big Ideas. Lowest prices". Under the new advertising campaign, commercials focussed on store prices being checked "twice daily", and slogans such as "we buy in bulk, so you get the lowest prices" were used. Officeworks also began offering free Wi-Fi access in all stores.
In June 2015, Officeworks opened a "3D Experience" centre at its Russell Street, Melbourne store, with 3D printers and scanners for sale, and 3D printing and scanning services.
By 2016 Officeworks had 164 stores nationally. In 2017, Officeworks stated it planned to add accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, communications and web design services targeted at small, micro and medium-sized businesses.
Maps Officeworks
Business model
Officeworks is a category killer within the office supplies product category. Each of its stores carries more than 30,000 products, to which it adds a further 1,000-2,000 products annually. Officeworks aims to cater for the entire needs of the small office, home office and families with student dependants.
Most Officeworks stores feature the following departments:
- Copy Centre (formerly Printworks) - Printing, photocopying, laminating, custom promotional products, photobooks, business cards, printed stationery, stamps and name badges
- Technology (aka Business Machines, formerly Techworks) - Computers, business machines, consumables and other electronic products as well as ink cartridges and toners for printers.
- Furniture (formerly Furnitureworks) - Chairs, desks, workstations, filing cabinets, pedestals, lighting and other office furniture.
- Stationery - Pens, paper and other stationery needs.
- Art and craft supplies - Paints, watercolours, conte pencils, drawing pencils, sketch pads, easels, poster cardboard, canvases
- Early learning and development products - shape and letter sets, craft kits and board books.
- Mailman - parcel post services e.g., price-leader parcel and document delivery services
See also
- List of companies of Australia
References
External links
- Officeworks
Source of article : Wikipedia
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