Office Depot expands Caribbean presence

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Office Depot announced that it is now expanding its retail store presence in the Caribbean territory as part of its franchise agreement with Benmore International.

Through its relationship with Benmore International, Office Depot initially launched a delivery business for customers at the end of last year. In August, the first Office Depot retail store location opened in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic at the Galeria 360 on John F. Kennedy Ave. Office Depot is planning three additional Dominican Republic stores scheduled to open in 2012. In addition to its operations in various Central American countries and Puerto Rico, Office Depot plans to further expand its business throughout the Caribbean.

“Office Depot is excited to open our first store in the Dominican Republic and we are looking forward to expanding our footprint in the Caribbean territory,” said Ernst Wessel, Office Depot’s VP and managing director for Latin America. “We’ve had considerable success with our franchise model in the Middle East. We believe that the Office Depot business is particularly suitable and attractive as a franchising concept for certain territories and we are actively looking to grow this part of our business in a number of overseas markets.”

Office Depot operates franchise businesses in other parts of the world, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and in Kuwait.