Office Depot Launches New Viking E-Commerce Web Site in Belgium; Introduction Marks the 17th & 18th Unique Web Sites Around the World

Business Wire, July 17, 2002

The Company also offers its contract customers unique Office Depot brand Web sites that are specifically designed to meet the special needs and requirements of each contract customer. The Company's strategy is to offer these specialized sites in each contract country over the next eighteen months. Currently, the Company offers a site in the United Kingdom at http://bsdnet.officedepot.co.uk and in the Netherlands at http://bsdnet.officedepot.nl , which provides contract customers access to its customized offers and product selection twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

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. The Company also operates seventeen additional Web sites, under the Office Depot and Viking Office Products names, in the U.S. and ten international countries including: Austria, Australia, France, Japan, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Belgium.

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.