Hopefully, this will be one of the last occasions you’ll hear me going on like a stuck record about the strung-out Staples/Office Depot saga. By the time you read this, we should be well into the court hearing in Washington DC brought about by the Federal Trade Commission’s challenge to the deal. The end is nigh!
I’ve been following the pre-trial documents on a daily basis and it looks like Staples is going to put up a good fight, even if the odds are still stacked against it prevailing. If you haven’t been keeping tabs on exactly what is going on, check out opi.net for regular updates.
Another European Office Products Awards (EOPA) evening has been and gone in the past month. Congratulations to all the winners for their well-deserved recognition. EOPA is now firmly established in conjunction with OPI’s Partnership event as an important and highly productive few days in the European business supplies calendar, attracting an impressive number of senior executives from all channels.
Paper is one of our featured categories in this month’s issue. Despite the digitisation of the workplace, paper is still a key product for many resellers – but the sector faces many underlying challenges and even “a fight for survival” in some cases.
Have a great month.
Andy Braithwaite, Editor-at-large
