Cautionary Statements

In December 1995, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Act”) was enacted by the United States Congress. The Act, as amended, contains certain amendments to the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These amendments provide protection from liability in private lawsuits for “forward-looking” statements made by public companies. We want to take advantage of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Act. In doing so, we have disclosed these forward-looking statements by informing you in specific cautionary statements of the circumstances which may cause the information in these statements not to transpire as expected.

This Annual Report contains both historical information and other information that you can use to infer future performance. Examples of historical information include our annual financial statements and the commentary on past performance contained in our MD&A. While we have specifically identified certain information as being forward-looking in the context of its presentation, we caution you that, with the exception of information that is clearly historical, all the information contained in this Annual Report should be considered to be “forward-looking statements” as referred to in the Act. Without limiting the generality of the preceding sentence, any time we use the words “estimate,” “project,” “intend,” “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “continue,” and similar expressions, we intend to clearly express that the information deals with possible future events and is forward-looking in nature.

Forward-looking information involves risks and uncertainties, including certain matters that we discuss in more detail below and in our report on Form 10-K, filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission. This information is based on various factors and important assumptions about future events that may or may not actually come true. As a result, our operations and financial results in the future could differ materially and substantially from those we have discussed in the forward-looking statements in this Annual Report. In particular, the factors we discuss below and in our Form 10-K could affect our actual results and could cause our actual results in 2001 and in future years to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement made by us or on our behalf in this Annual Report.

Competition: We compete with a variety of retailers, dealers and distributors in a highly competitive marketplace that includes high-volume office supply chains, warehouse clubs, computer stores, contract stationers, and well-established mass merchant retailers. Well-established mass merchant retailers have the financial and distribution ability to compete very effectively with us should they choose to enter the office superstore retail category, Internet office supply or contract stationer business or substantially expand their offering in their existing retail outlets. This could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of our operations.

Internet: Internet-based merchandisers also compete with us. This competition is expected to increase in the future as these companies proliferate and continue to expand their operations. Many start-up operations that are heavily focused on Internet sales may be able to compete with us in the areas of price and selection. While most of these companies cannot offer the levels of service and stability of supply that we provide, they nevertheless may be formidable competitors, particularly for customers who are willing to look for the absolute lowest price without regard to the other attributes of our business model. In addition, certain manufacturers of computer hardware, software and peripherals, including certain of our suppliers, have expanded their own direct marketing of products, particularly over the Internet. Even as we expand our own Internet efforts, our ability to anticipate and adapt to the developing Internet marketplace and the capabilities of our network infrastructure to efficiently handle our rapidly expanding operations are of critical importance. Furthermore, our profitability goals may also serve to inhibit the expansion of our presence on the Internet, because dedicated Internet concerns are currently evaluated differently in the financial markets than more established concerns such as ours. Failure to execute well in any of these key areas could have a material adverse effect on our future sales growth and profitability.

Execution of Expansion Plans: We plan to open approximately 50 stores in the United States and Canada and numerous stores in our International Division during 2001, and we consider our expansion program to be an integral part of our plan to achieve anticipated operating results in future years. Circumstances outside our control, such as adverse weather conditions affecting construction schedules, unavailability of acceptable sites or materials, labor disputes and similar issues could impact anticipated store openings. The failure to expand by opening new stores as planned and the failure to generate the anticipated sales growth in markets where new stores are opened could have a material adverse effect on our future sales growth and profitability.

Cannibalization of Sales in Existing Office Depot Stores: As we expand the number of our stores in existing markets, sales of existing stores may suffer from cannibalization (customers of our existing stores begin shopping at our new stores). Our new stores typically require an extended period of time to reach the sales and profitability levels of our existing stores. Moreover, the opening of new stores does not ensure that those stores will ever be as profitable as existing stores, particularly when new stores are opened in highly competitive markets or markets in which other office supply superstores may have achieved “first mover” advantage. Our comparable sales are affected by a number of factors, including the opening of additional Office Depot stores; the expansion of our contract stationer business in new and existing markets; competition from other office supply chains, mass merchandisers, warehouse clubs, computer stores, other contract stationers and Internet-based businesses; and regional, national and international economic conditions. In addition, our profitability would be adversely affected if our competitors were to attempt to capture market share by reducing prices.