Staples Inc., the world's leading office supplies retailer, has entered the Indian market through a joint venture with the Future Group. The Indian market for stationery and office products is highly fragmented and unorganized - both at the manufacturer and retailer levels. Adherence to product quality and standardization are comparatively low; and many customers are used to making a compromise by buying from what is available. Given this context, it would not be an exaggeration to state that Staples faces the challenge of revolutionizing the office supplies business in India. While it has had some initial success, only time can tell the shape of its growth trajectory in the Indian market.

Staples Future Office Products Pvt. Ltd. is a joint venture be- tween the American office products giant Staples Inc., and India's leading retailing house - the Future Group, well-known for its successful retail formats, such as Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, etc. Staples started its operations in India on December 27, 2007 and currently has nine stores spread across Bangalore, Mumbai/Navi Mumbai, Pune and Noida. The company has its corporate office in Mumbai. It offers three categories of products - office supplies (stationery and allied items, gifts and promotional items), technology products (computers, computer accessories, other electronic office equipment) and office furniture. The company has adopted a logo and tagline (Exhibit 1), which is drawn from Staples Inc's logo and tagline shown later in this article.

Staples Inc., headquartered near Boston in the US, pioneered the office superstore concept in 1986; and is currently the world's largest office products company. Staples occupied the 128^th place in the list of Fortune 500 for the year 2008, with a turnover of $19.4 bn in 2007. The companys sales increased to $23 bn during 2008. Its direct competitors in the office supplies business are Office Depot and OfficeMax. Staples deals in a wide range of office products encompassing stationery, technology products and office furniture. It has over 2000 stores spread across 27 countries in North and South America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Of these, 1521 are in the US. The rest are concentrated mainly in Canada (311), United Kingdom (137), Germany (58), The Netherlands (47) and Portugal (30). Staples stores are well-recognized by their innovative logo and catchy tagline.

Marketing Mastermind Magazine, Staples Future Office Products Pvt. Ltd., American Office Supplies Giant, Stationery Products, Technology Products , Organizational Structure, Special Product Groups, Procurement Management, Inventory Management, Office Products, Indian Market.