(EMAILWIRE.COM, January 16, 2003 ) According to the United States Small Business Administration, there are an estimated 2 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States already generating about 300 billion dollars in sales every single year. What's more, this trend is expected to double every five years and within ten years there could be as many as 8 million Hispanic-owned business in the US -- clearly the Hispanic market is a significant force in contributing to the United States economy.

Recognizing the valuable role of Hispanic businesses in today's marketplace, Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP), the world's largest seller of office products and services, today announced the launch of its new Spanish language Web site. The new Web site at http://espanol.officedepot.com mirrors Office Depot's English award-winning public Web site and marks the first fully-functional Spanish language Web site featuring more than 14,000 office supplies and products in the office supply retail industry.

Commenting on this new E-Commerce initiative, Office Depot's Executive Vice President of E-Commerce, Monica Luechtefeld said: "The Hispanic market is an extraordinarily important market in the US. The market is exploding and today represents a significant portion of our business customers. With a commitment to providing our customers with the tools they need to grow their businesses, we wanted to provide a convenient and easy to navigate Web site. Our site reaches out to this very important customer base and offers them a language they might feel more comfortable speaking and engaging with us for their office supply needs."

Office Depot's new Hispanic Web site features many popular and convenient features and functionality including: Office Depot's Store Locator, Saved Lists, Order Tracking, Comparison Shopping of similar products and a comprehensive search function that allows customers to find the office product they need.

"After months of evaluating Hispanic buying patterns, we learned that when it comes to making major purchasing decisions, Hispanic business owners want rich content and information and often times they want to make purchasing decisions in Spanish. By reaching out to Hispanic customers in their native language, the benefits are two-fold; we believe our new Web site will not only help us attract new customers, but build increased loyalty among our existing Hispanic customers, which makes good business sense," said Luechtefeld. Commenting on Hispanic-owned businesses, Hector Barreto, Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration said: "We believe that 15% of all businesses in the United States are minority-owned, which includes African-American, Asian and Hispanic-owned businesses. But arguably, the fastest growing segment right now is the Hispanic-owned business market and more importantly these trends are expected to continue to significantly grow over the next five to ten years."

In addition to the launch of this new Web site, Office Depot will market and develop alliances with Hispanic online media such as Terra.com, the U.S. Hispanic portal of the Terra Lycos global network. The marketing agreement with Terra.com includes multi-faceted marketing and advertising campaigns, leveraging Terra.com's leadership in the U.S. Hispanic market and throughout Latin America.

"The launch of this comprehensive Spanish Web site underscores Office Depot's commitment to the Hispanic market by providing its customers with a valuable tool, and an easy and convenient way for Hispanic businesses to purchase the office products and supplies needed to grow and successfully run their businesses. We applaud Office Depot for recognizing the growth of the Hispanic community and creating a site tailored to provide Hispanic businesses with the convenience of a Web site in Spanish," said George Herrera, President and Chief Executive Officer of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Today's announcement and video interviews with Hector Barreto, U.S. Administrator from the Small Business Administration, Monica Luechtefeld, EVP of E-Commerce for Office Depot and comment from Hispanic small business owners, Annette Taddeo, President and CEO of Languagespeak and Cesar Melgoza, President and CEO of Geoscape International can be viewed in both English http://64.224.5.139/westglen.com/Hot_Topics/13120eng.wmv or Spanish http://64.224.5.139/westglen.com/Hot_Topics/13120spn.wmv

Office Depot's award-winning public Web site at www.officedepot.com will continue to operate independently.

About Office Depot

No one sells more office products to more customers in more countries through more channels than Office Depot. As the largest seller of office products around the world, the Company operates under the Office Depot®, Viking Office Products®, Viking Direct® and 4Sure.com® brand names. As of September 28, 2002, Office Depot operated 861 office supply superstores in the United States and Canada, in addition to a national business-to-business delivery network supported by 24 delivery centers, more than 60 local sales offices and 13 regional call centers. Furthermore, the Company sells products and services in 20 countries outside of the United States and Canada, including 32 office supply stores in France and 12 in Japan that are owned and operated by the Company; and 115 additional office supply stores under joint venture and licensing agreements operating under the Office Depot name in six foreign countries.

The Company operates an award-winning U.S. Office Depot brand Web site at www.officedepot.com where customers can access Office Depot's low competitive prices seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, as well as a new Web site that targets the school supply market at www.school.com. The Company also operates twenty-five additional public and contract Web sites, under the Office Depot and Viking Office Products names, in the U.S., Canada and twelve international countries including: Austria, Australia, Belgium, France, Japan, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Office Depot's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index.

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Produced for Office Depot

Contact:


Lauren Garvey
JKG Communications
Ph: 561-989-9931, ext 101
Cell: 561-702-0178
lgarvey@officedepot.com

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Office Depot, Inc.
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