Get to know Office Depot UK in our new ‘Meet the Supplier’ feature

Pretium Frameworks is excited to share its new meet the supplier feature, which gives you the unique opportunity to get a peek behind the curtain at the 151 suppliers that power our frameworks. The regular Q&A feature will get up close and personal with our suppliers as we ask them about their main aims, future plans, and how they’re benefiting the customers and communities they work with. Amanda McKitty, Public Sector Director of Office Depot UK, supplier for our Total Business Solutions framework, takes the spotlight in our inaugural feature. Read on to learn more about Office Depot’s decarbonisation efforts, diverse range of products and services and charitable activities.

What is your company’s mission statement/aims/objectives?

Our mission is centred around simplifying processes and the supply chain, ultimately giving our customers the time, resources and energy to focus on driving their core business, rather than dealing with multiple suppliers and invoices. With that, our vision is to be the most trusted, go-to partner for the business solutions market, and a big part of that is diversifying our portfolio, something we’ve been focusing on massively for the last few months.

Can you give us a brief history of your company?

We’ve been around for over 130 years! We have been owned by Grenadier Holdings (formerly Paragon Group) for a few years now, which means we can offer even more services and products through our sister companies too. Over the course of our 130 years, we’ve grown to a business that has 600+ employees and 7,000 customers, which sees us pack around three million parcels a year.

What are the benefits of being a supplier on this framework?

For us, being on this framework allows us to further our work within the housing and public sector. We work across numerous public sector frameworks, but this one really solidifies what we’re here to help with and ties into our mission by minimising the supply chain for our customers, by catering for all procurement needs under one roof! It also means we get to work with the experts at Pretium. We get to work with a team dedicated to achieving added value and excellent customer service for clients throughout the health, education and housing sectors.

What specific products or services does your company deliver through the framework (s)?

A lot! The idea here is that we can cater to all procurement needs, hence why it’s such a consolidated solution. We provide a range of tailored, dynamic and expert business solutions, across a range of categories, from office and facilities supplies such as stationery and cleaning products, to furniture, PPE, workwear and managed print services, hence why we’re delivering under ‘Total Business Solutions’.

What sets your business apart from its competitors?

Our range of products and services really are unrivalled! We now have one million products available through our online procurement platform, and all the services we offer, such as MPS and data archiving, are delivered by industry-leading teams and experts. Our experienced and talented team make all the difference too, with tonnes of experience across housing and public sector, all of our customers also get a bespoke plan created and overseen by a key Project Manager.

How important is social value to you as a business and how do you support the communities in which you work?

At Office Depot, we champion environmental and societal change and strive to respect and nurture our planet, our community and our people with the actions we take. We have a transparent Net Zero Plan, as well as a full ESG manifesto that outlines all of the sustainability and social objectives we’ve already achieved, and what we’re committed to achieving in the future. The Net Zero Plan is key in helping our customers understand how we’re impacting the carbon emissions in their supply chain. Being clear about sustainability has never been more critical, and that’s why we aim to be so transparent with the publication of this plan, which can be downloaded from our website. One of our key achievements to date from our manifesto, for example, is that we reduced our Carbon Emissions by 34% over the course of the last financial year. We also work with charities such as the Tree Council to give back to communities. For example, we had a team of Office Depot volunteers planting trees in Liverpool last month! Because we’re based all over the UK, we tend to get involved with lots of local initiatives in many different cities.

What will be the key areas of focus for your business over the next 12 months?

Growing our product portfolio on our online procurement platform is a huge focus for us. It’s key in helping us meet our vision of being the trusted, go-to partner for all of our customers, and it’s critical in helping customers simplify the procurement process.

Are there any recent innovations or developments in your business that excite you?

As part of our plans to extend our product offering, we’re working with a number of ‘Endless Aisle’ suppliers, which is basically our extended range. For example, we recently announced that we’ve teamed up with Dams Furniture to bring our customers an incredible range of over 9,000 additional products across ergonomic furniture and workspace solutions.

Can you tell us an interesting fact about your organisation?

Our distribution centre is the largest in the industry at over 700,000 sq ft across three levels! And it delivers over 40,000 packages every day.

How is Office Depot contributing to decarbonisation efforts in the sector, and how does it reduce the carbon footprint of its deliveries?

As part of our roadmap to Net Zero, we’ve already completed a number of key initiatives. such as upgrading the lighting in our central distribution centre in Manchester, which reduced emissions by 124 tonnes per year and has saved us over 80% in electricity year on year. Alongside the initiatives outlined in our Net Zero Plan, we’ve recently switched our distribution partner to DPD, which has brought a lot of green benefits! By leveraging DPD’s infrastructure, Office Depot aims to make a marked reduction in our carbon footprint – taking the number of trailers we use down from 13 to three.​ They also plant one tree for every 10 deliveries made in an electric vehicle, as part of their Go Zero Be a Hero campaign (through Treeapp). Over 100,000 trees have already been planted through this initiative since 2021! We’re also working on a self-serve portal for our customers, and when this launches, we hope to include carbon tracking per delivery in here too.