Customer Center continues Corporate Express growth

BROOMFIELD -With plans for a new customer service center in Aurora, Corporate Express Inc. says its growth plans includes technology upgrades and entry into new product lines such as health care and environmentally friendly supplies. Once two new facilities are fully staffed, the company could employ about 1,800 in Colorado.

Corporate Express, a supplier of office, facilities and computer products and services with North American sales of about $4.5 billion in 2004, has come a long way from its beginnings almost 20 years ago as a regional office-products retailer based in Boulder.
Broomfield-based Corporate Express, a subsidiary of Buhrmann, NV (NYSE: BUH), now is making a major push to improve customer relations.

“We pride ourselves on our dialogue and experience with our customers, but we believe we can do an even better job,´ said Van Hindes, vice president of communications.
Corporate Express will be opening a new contact center in Aurora.

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“To take our customer experience to the next level, we needed to make a significant investment in technology,” Hindes explained. The site will feature a number of technology upgrades, including the use of voice over Internet protocol for improved call handling.
The Customer Experience Center in Aurora will house more than 600 customer- care specialists and support staff, a consolidation of the company’s customer service providers from 28 divisions from around the country. Corporate Express is recruiting internally for transfers and will begin external recruiting in early 2006. Staffing will be completed by third quarter 2006.

In addition, Corporate Express will house a centralized credit and collections organization along with financial and information technology support organizations at its newly opened facility in Northglenn. Fifty employees from the Westminster office moved to Northglenn in September. Corporate Express will move staff to Northglenn from its Broomfield headquarters and its Westminster facility over the next six months. Westminster will be vacated after its lease expires in summer 2006.

Corporate Express also is recruiting for 85 new positions. Over the next four to five years, the company plans to have approximately 500 full-time jobs in Northglenn. The number of employees at headquarters in Broomfield is expected to stay the same at 650.

“Today we employ 1,160 people throughout Colorado,” Hindes said. “When the two new facilities are fully staffed and operational, we will employ more than 1,800 in Colorado.”
Corporate Express began with 11 employees in one small building in Boulder. Founded by Jirka Rysavy in 1986 as a regional office-products retailer, the company went public in 1994 with reported revenues of $621 million. By 1998, it had acquired approximately 200 companies.

In 1999, the Dutch international business services and distribution group Buhrmann NV acquired Corporate Express and combined it with its subsidiary, BT Office Products. In 2001, Corporate Express acquired most of U.S. Office Products North American office products assets, then integrated all the company’s U.S. operations.

A controversy recently put Corporate Express in the news after allegations that it may have presented itself illegally as a small business to receive preferences for federal contracts. But Frans Koffrie, chairman and chief executive of Buhrmann, defended the company, saying its dealing with contracts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Navy were handled “in the right way.

“In no case have we sold our company as a small company to government agencies,” news reports quoted Koffrie as saying during an earnings conference call.
Corporate Express officials said the company has worked to expand its product lines to be an all-in-one supplier for its customers.

“One of our strengths is a broad product offering and being able to deliver that with a high service level in a very quick period of time,´ said Tim Beauchamp, senior vice president of distribution operations. Over the past couple of years, Corporate Express has been building on that strength.

One of its most successful offerings has been a line of Corporate Express branded products. Launched in 2004, the products are designed “to meet customer demand to improve on the cost of purchasing office supplies,” Hindes said. The line has grown from 1,600 items to 2,100 in its 2006 product catalog called the Sourcebook. Beauchamp describes the growth of the private-label products as one of the biggest changes he’s seen in the last two years. Approximately 25 percent of office-product sales are for the Corporate Express brand.

Corporate Express also is offering a new line of products to the hospitals it services. “Corporate Express is the only office-product dealer that has contracts with the top seven group purchasing organizations in the health-care industry,” Hindes said. Corporate Express currently serves 3,200 hospitals in North America each day, mainly with office supplies and facilities products. For 2006, the company is launching a new health-care Sourcebook with 300 items specifically for health care such as diagnostic equipment, masks and tables.

The company also launched “Ecoffice,” a program promoting more than 3,500 environmentally friendly products. It also said it would implement its own in-house initiatives to reduce environmental impact. Last year the company said it recycled more than 350 tons of catalogs.

“We will continue to expand our product offering to grow our company and meet the needs of our customers,” Hindes said. “Our customers are interested in consolidating suppliers. By having fewer suppliers, companies have found they can save internally on their expenses.”

Corporate Express does business with about 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies, according to Hindes. To serve these strategic and large accounts, Corporate Express employs a direct sales force. As an exclusively business-to-business company, it has found a direct sales force to be a very effective strategy because it allows the salespeople to more effectively communicate with procurement professionals. Corporate Express also reaches out to midmarket customers that potentially spend $12,000 to $120,000 on office products per year.