Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE:ODP), a leading global provider of office products, services, and solutions formed by the merger of Office Depot and OfficeMax, today announced that it was presented with a Gold Stevie® Award for Innovation in Customer Service in the eighth annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. The international competition recognizes excellence in disciplines that are crucial to business success, and honors the accomplishments of sales, customer service, and call/contact center professionals worldwide.

Office Depot was recognized for satisfying its customers through improved customer service representative quality. The company dedicates time, energy and resources to proactively measure the "voice of the customer" through hourly, daily, and weekly measurements taken randomly from the thousands of customer interactions that occur throughout Office Depot's service delivery network.

"We want to ensure that our customers are served effectively, and that they're satisfied with the interactions with our customer service representatives," said Tim McGrath, vice president of customer service for Office Depot, Inc. "With our ability to see who our best representatives are based on customer feedback, we can effectively reward and recognize the agents our customers tell us to, leading to invaluable year-over-year improvement in service."

More than 1,500 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year's competition, an increase of 36 percent over 2013. Finalists were determined by the average scores of 129 professionals worldwide, acting as preliminary judges.

"Entries to the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service awards have almost doubled over the past few years," said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards. "Not only have we seen a dramatic increase in the number of entries; but the judges have also seen a remarkable rise in the quality of the nominations submitted overall. We congratulate all of this year's Stevie winners for their outstanding work."

The awards were presented to honorees during a gala banquet on Friday, February 21 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. More than 400 nominated customer service and sales executives from the U.S. and several other countries attended.

Office Depot also won Stevie Awards in 2013, 2012, 2009 and 2004.

Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service and the list of Stevie winners in all categories are available at www.StevieAwards.com/sales.

About Office Depot, Inc.

Formed by the merger of Office Depot and OfficeMax, Office Depot, Inc. is a leading global provider of products, services, and solutions for every workplace - whether your workplace is an office, home, school, or car.

Office Depot, Inc. is a resource and a catalyst to help customers work better. We are a single source for everything customers need to be more productive, including the latest technology, core office supplies, print and document services, business services, facilities products, furniture, and school essentials.

The company has combined annual sales of approximately $17 billion, employs about 66,000 associates, and serves consumers and businesses in 57 countries with more than 2,200 retail stores, award-winning e-commerce sites and a dedicated business-to-business sales organization - all delivered through a global network of wholly owned operations, joint ventures, franchisees, licensees and alliance partners. The company's portfolio of leading brands includes Office Depot, OfficeMax, OfficeMax Grand & Toy, Viking, Ativa, TUL, Foray, and DiVOGA.

Office Depot, Inc.'s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP. Additional press information can be found at: http://news.officedepot.com.

Additional information about the recently completed merger of Office Depot and OfficeMax can be found at http://officedepotmaxmerger.com.

About The Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in five programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.

Office Depot, Inc.
Nicole Miller, 630-864-6069
nicolemiller@officemax.com
or
Rebecca Rakitin, 561-438-1450
Rebecca.Rakitin@officedepot.com