Staples Unveils Full Scope of Newly Integrated Business-to-Business Services With Launch of StaplesAdvantage.com

Staples Advantage, the business-to-business division of Staples, Inc., today announced the launch of its new Web site (StaplesAdvantage.com) to address customers’ growing demands for supplier consolidation and reduced procurement costs. For the first time, current and prospective customers – from small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to Fortune 1000 corporations – can view the full scale of Staples Advantage’s products and services, including five newly integrated business-to-business service offerings: Business Interiors by Staples, Staples Technology Solutions, Staples Facility Solutions, Staples Print Solutions and Staples Promotional Products. Combined with Staples Advantage’s complete selection of office products, these expanded capabilities represent the industry’s most extensive offering of business products and services from one source.

With sales of more than $6 billion, Staples Advantage has become a driving force in the procurement world. Over 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies are Staples Advantage customers, as well as leading academic institutions, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies, and state and federal government agencies. As these organizations look to drive savings and improve efficiency by consolidating procurement across multiple functional areas, the new StaplesAdvantage.com provides tools and resources to address these needs.

"Businesses today are eager to create efficiencies in procurement given reduced human and capital resources,” said Jay Baitler, executive vice president of Staples Advantage. "Our new StaplesAdvantage.com Web site helps our current and potential new customers understand how we can deliver much more than office supplies – to support their supplier consolidation goals and find new opportunities for savings.”

Over the past few years, many companies have increasingly turned to supplier consolidation as a way to reduce the costs and complexity of managing multiple suppliers. Recently, leading global organizations such as Kraft have publicly announced plans to consolidate suppliers with the expectation of significant savings in the coming years.

"Our benchmarks have consistently shown supplier rationalization to be a proven way that the best procurement organizations drive spend cost reduction,” said Kurt Albertson, U.S. Procurement Advisory Lead for The Hackett Group, a global strategic advisory firm. "Hackett’s 2009 research shows that world-class procurement organizations have 22% fewer indirect suppliers than typical companies, and achieve more than twice the savings on indirect spending.”

One Source for Business Products and Services

To help customers more easily meet supplier consolidation goals and reduce their total procurement costs, today Staples Advantage offers:

• Staples Print Solutions, a comprehensive document and print management offering, including digital copy and print, custom printing, flexible packaging and the most comprehensive label production capabilities in the industry
• Staples Facility Solutions, one of the only national cleaning and maintenance programs in the country, offering a wide assortment of janitorial and cleaning supplies and exclusive environmentally preferable cleaners to promote health and wellness
• Staples Promotional Products, a full-service corporate branding solution, featuring more than 700,000 customizable items and an in-house design and creative marketing staff
• Staples Technology Solutions, a complete array of IT services from data center solutions and printer fleet management services to network services and everyday desktop technology products
• Business Interiors by Staples, a full-scale furniture and interior design service, offering the most extensive selection of contract grade business furnishings from one national source and comprehensive project management from design to installation

The new StaplesAdvantage.com also offers many interactive features to help current and potential customers more easily research and gather information to make more informed decisions about their supply and service needs. Visitors can download case studies, view videos, access interactive product galleries, and browse Staples Advantage’s many online catalogs. New e-mail and contact features also make it easy to receive an introductory consultation with a Staples representative.

For more information, visit www.StaplesAdvantage.com.

About Staples Advantage

Staples Advantage, the business-to-business division of Staples, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLS), serves mid-sized to Fortune 1000 companies, state and federal government agencies, and universities. Staples Advantage works collaboratively with its customers to enable procurement professionals to efficiently manage office products and services programs with a low cost-to-serve model. Staples Advantage has been certified by J.D. Power and Associates for delivering "An Outstanding Customer Service Experience” for six consecutive years. More information is available at www.staplesadvantage.com.

About Staples

Staples, the world’s largest office products company, is committed to making it easy for customers to buy a wide range of office products and services. Our broad selection of office supplies, electronics, technology and office furniture as well as business services, including computer repair and copying and printing, helps our customers run their offices efficiently. With 2009 sales of $24 billion and 91,000 associates worldwide, Staples operates in 25 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia serving businesses of all sizes and consumers. Staples invented the office superstore concept in 1986 and today ranks second worldwide in e-commerce sales. The company is headquartered outside Boston. More information about Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS) is available at www.staples.com/media.