Office Depot Names David W. D`Arezzo Executive Vice President, Merchandising
Appointment Completes Senior Management Team Reporting To CEO
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Jul 24, 2002 -- OFFICE DEPOT, INC. (NYSE:ODP), the world`s largest seller of office products, announced today that it has appointed David W. D`Arezzo to the position of Executive Vice President, Merchandising. Mr. D`Arezzo, formerly Senior Vice President of Merchandising for Wegmans Food Markets, will report directly to Office Depot`s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bruce Nelson.
In his new role, Mr. D`Arezzo will have responsibility for all merchandising across the Company`s retail, contract, catalog and e-commerce businesses. He will direct all the Company`s strategic merchandising initiatives and lead the development of new merchandising initiatives designed to grow revenue across all Office Depot channels.
Before joining Office Depot, Mr. D`Arezzo spent eight years with Wegmans Food Markets, most recently as Senior Vice President of Merchandising, with responsibility for grocery, dairy, frozen, bulk and natural food merchandising across the privately held chain of grocery/general merchandising stores. Prior to Wegmans, Mr. D`Arezzo worked at PepsiCo for four years in marketing and business development.
Bruce Nelson, Chairman and CEO of Office Depot noted, "David is truly a well-rounded executive. He has a solid record of achievement in merchandising, marketing and business development. The breadth and depth of his expertise is world class, and will be invaluable as we become more sophisticated in our merchandising assortment and strategies to grow customers and revenues. David will play a vital role in developing and implementing a number of new merchandising and supply chain initiatives designed to help and support our global businesses, and I am delighted to have him join my executive leadership team.
"At the time of my appointment to CEO, I stated that one of my most important objectives was to assemble a `world class` senior executive management team and with the hiring of David, I have now completed that objective. I am confident that the group of executives we now have in place at Office Depot is the right team to lead and grow our business and further expand our global leadership position."
D`Arezzo, age 43, holds a master of business administration degree from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor of science degree from the University of San Francisco. He is married with three children and is already in the process of relocating to South Florida.
About Office Depot
No one sells more office products to more customers in more countries through more channels than Office Depot. As the largest seller of office products around the world, the Company operates under the Office Depot(R), Viking Office Products(R), Viking Direct(R) and 4Sure.com(R) brand names. As of June 29, 2002, Office Depot operated 853 office supply superstores in the United States and Canada, in addition to a national business-to-business delivery network supported by 24 delivery centers, more than 60 local sales offices and 13 regional call centers. Furthermore, the Company sells products and services in 19 countries outside of the United States and Canada, including 32 office supply stores in France and 12 in Japan that are owned and operated by the Company; and 110 additional office supply stores under joint venture and licensing agreements operating under the Office Depot name in five foreign countries.
The Company operates an award-winning U.S. Office Depot brand Web site at http://www.officedepot.com where customers can access Office Depot`s low competitive prices seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, as well as a new Web site that targets the school supply market at http://www.school.com. The Company also operates eighteen additional Web sites, under the Office Depot and Viking Office Products names, in the U.S. and eleven countries including: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Office Depot`s common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index.
CONTACT:
Office Depot, Delray Beach
Eileen H. Dunn, 561/438-4930
edunn@officedepot.com
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