Regarding the American stationery giant Staple, most Chinese people know that it is a famous stapler and staple manufacturer, but what few people know is that it was once an office supplies retailer.

In its important North American market, Staples has more than 1,500 stores, accounting for almost half of the US office supplies market.

However, we have not waited for more Chinese to learn about the American stationery giant. In June 2017, an embarrassing “selling” case occurred. Sold to Sycamore Partners, a private equity fund.

In the recent in-depth report released by the Guotai Junan Light Industry Team, through the review of the three links of Staples’ rise, expansion, and fall, it revealed to us the corporate strategy at different stages in the stationery industry and explained the Chinese stationery industry-this view Why is the “sunset” industry that is not sexy at this stage has extremely high investment value.

01 There is no middleman to make the difference, the American office goods supermarket is born

In the 1980s, high-quality and inexpensive warehouse-style membership stores and supermarkets gradually became the mainstream of the US retail industry.

Inspired by this, the American Thomas G. Stemberg (Thomas G. Stemberg) came up with the idea of ​​opening an office supplies supermarket after unsuccessful searching for printer materials during a holiday.