Officeworks is a chain of Australianoffice supplies stores operated under parent company Wesfarmers. The company was established in the early 1990s by Coles Myer, which became Coles Group before it was acquired by Wesfarmers. Its head office is located in Bentleigh East, Melbourne. The store concept adopted by Officeworks was based on the US chain Office Depot.
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 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. In February 2018, Officeworks updated their tagline to "make bigger things happen" to reinforce that they're there to support customers by having a wide range of products at low prices and with great service.
Social Responsibility
In 2017, Officeworks launched their Restoring Australia initiative in partnership with Greening Australia. For every tree used to make their paper and wood based office supplies, based on weight, two trees will be planted in key Australia landscapes that are depleting. Officeworks was the first Australian company to become the first signatory to the Vancouver Declaration, a public promise made by companies across the globe to work towards more sustainable sourcing of forest products.
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:
Technology - Computers, laptops, Apple products, headphones, speakers, and other electronic products as well as ink cartridges and toners for printers.
Furniture - 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.
