The thorough review resulted in the closing of 70 North American Retail stores and six small Office DepotExpress stores in France, as well as a substantial reduction in underperforming inventory that we carry in our retail stores and warehouses. These collective actions led to a $284.8 million dollar charge to earnings, which we announced at year-end 2000.

Change can be difficult, even in the best of times. Although our Business Services Group, which includes our highly successful Internet business, and our International Division performed well during the year, we experienced disappointing results in our North American Retail stores. Sales for the fiscal year 2000 rose 13 percent to $11.6 billion, compared with $10.3 billion in fiscal 1999.comparable worldwide sales in the 850 stores and the 39 delivery centers that were open for more than one year increased seven percent, compared with a six percent increase in fiscal 1999. Earnings per share, before one-time charges and credits, were $0.70 cents, a 19 percent decline from the prior year.

Reaching New Milestones

While our overall financial results were disappointing in 2000, Office Depot still reached several notable milestones during the year:

• Revenue growth in our International Division reached 23 percent in local currencies;
• Sales in our domestic Internet business grew by 143 percent to $849.5 million;
• We launched eight new international websites in six countries; and
• We established the Office Depot Business Services Division in the U.K., which will serve as a platform for continued expansion throughout Europe.

We also won several important awards in 2000, which recognized Office Depot’s dedication to diversity, as well as our continuing commitment to cutting-edge technology and its integration across a multi-channel platform.

• Based on a poll of actual business users, DIV2000.com, a leading Internet business portal, named Office Depot as one of the top 50 U.S. corporations dedicated to serving woman and minority-owned businesses;
• CIO Magazine designated Office Depot the winner of the magazine’s annual Enterprise Value Award, which honors our powerful use of information technology, impressive technology innovation and industry leadership;
• InformationWeek selected Office Depot as the top-rated retail company in the magazine’s 2000 list of the most innovative users of information technology in the U.S.; and
• PC Computing recognized Office Depot as an online retailing leader and ranked the Company first on the magazine’s Business E-Shopping list for office supplies.