FedEx Office

Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1970
Headquarters	Dallas, Texas
Key people	Brian Philips, CEO
Industry	Office services
Products	Photocopying, printing, shipping
Employees	19,000 (2006)
Parent	FedEx Corporation
Website	FedEx Office Homepage

A FedEx Office store

FedEx Office (formerly FedEx Kinko's, and earlier simply Kinko's) is a chain of stores that provide a retail outlet for FedEx Express and FedEx Ground (including Home Delivery) shipping, as well as printing, copying, and binding services. Many stores also provide video conferencing facilities. Unlike its main competitor, The UPS Store, all FedEx Office stores are corporate owned. The primary clientele consists of small business and home office clients. There are more than 1800 centers in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. With over $2 billion in revenues, the company is the 7th largest printing company in North America.^[1]

The company was founded as Kinko's in 1970 by Paul Orfalea, whose nickname was "Kinko" because of his kinky (curly) hair. The original copy shop was founded in the college community of Isla Vista next to the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He left the company in 2000, following a dispute with the investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, to which he had sold a large stake in the company a few years earlier.^[2]

Kinko's established its corporate headquarters in Ventura, California, but in 2002, the company relocated to Galleria Tower in Dallas, Texas.

In February 2004 Kinko's was bought by FedEx for $2.4 billion and then became known as FedEx Kinko's Office and Print Centers. Currently, Brian Phillips is the President and Chief Executive Officer, following Ken May's departure on March 7, 2008.^[3][4]

Locations of FedEx Office centers include Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Mexico, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

FedEx Office's primary competitors include The UPS Store, OfficeMax, AlphaGraphics, Staples, Sir Speedy, and VistaPrint.

On June 2, 2008, FedEx announced that they were rebranding FedEx Kinko's to be FedEx Office, with the intent that it would more accurately represent the broader role the company envisioned for the company. With this change, FedEx Office has become the retail branch of the FedEx Corporation. As of late 2009, some stores and branding still show FedEx Kinko's. FedEx Office offers the same services that FedEx Kinko's Office and Print Center locations did previously.

[edit] Services

FedEx Office offers a wide variety of production and finishing services, as well as FedEx shipping; however they are best known for making photocopies. Most centers have three distinct sections: self-service, shipping, and production.

FedEx Office also offers signs and banners. The prices vary by material and square footage, from bond paper to cut vinyl to full-color outdoor banners. Signs are available in black & white or color.

Direct mail is a new focus of the company, offering customers the ability to print and mail advertisements directly to potential sales through a partnership with the USPS.

Notary public services are no longer offered at FedEx Office as of June 1, 2009 in the following states: Alabama, Arizona, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. The remaining states will discontinue notary services beginning June 1, 2010.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• FedEx Office