Staples Cooperates With UB Group to Tap Office Supply Market in Taiwan

After seeing that Taiwan has a market value for office supplies and related items worth US$2.5 billion, Staples, a famous U.S.-based office supply chain store, recently signed a contract with UB Express, an affiliate of UB Group—Taiwan's leading office furniture and office supplies manufacturer—to jointly establish UB Staples stores in Taiwan to tap the office supply market on the island.

Established in 1986 in the U.S., Staples soon gained attention by introducing the concept of an office supply superstore in that country. Growing very rapidly, by 2004 the company boasted a total of 1,426 Staples chain stores in North America and another 254 stores in other parts of the world. Last year, the company added 100 more stores and raked in revenue of US$16.1 billion.

Today Staples is the world's largest manufacturer of office supplies, including stationery products, e-office high-tech items, and office planning services. Today the company is ranked at about No. 130 on the list of the world's top 500 companies as compiled by the U.S.-based Fortune Magazine.

Market observers indicate that Staples' contract with UB Express will help it rapidly enter the market in Taiwan. Other than Taiwan, Staples has already set up offices in Beijing and Shanghai on a joint-venture basis to explore the market in mainland China. With the investments in Taiwan and the mainland, Staples seems to be aggressively making inroads into the office supply markets on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

A ranking official at Staples discloses that Staples chose UB Express as its partner here mainly because of the latter's good image in the world market for its quality office furniture products. UB has enjoyed successful office stationery sales on the island with a buying pool of nearly 100,000 clients.

Staples emphasizes that its philosophy is to enable its clients to easily purchase office products through the company's global purchasing platform, which makes products available at reasonable prices. Moreover, Staples also offers its corporate clients two delivery times each day to save the time they spend on going to office supply stores.

Lin Wei-hsiu, chairman of the UB Group, points out that Taiwan's office stationery market witnesses intense competition, that those involved in the market have to be keen enough to discover market trends, and that they must be capable enough to control manufacturing and management costs while still upgrading the quality of their products.

Lin says that UB's cooperation with Staples will obviously reinforce UB's strength in Taiwan's office stationery market, as Staples is a world-leading office supplier and excels in building marketing channels and operating efficiently. The paid-in capital for the projected UB Staples venture is estimated at US$5 million, and each of the two partners will take an even 50% stake.

In the initial stage, UB Staples will form its client network via online and catalog sales, and will open stores for consumers around the island later on.