Officeworks is Australia’s leading retailer and supplier of office products and solutions for home, business and education needs. The business caters for a broad range of customers that includes small-to-medium size businesses, students and teachers, and everyday personal shoppers.

Officeworks provides customers with three easy ways to shop – via a national network of more than 120 retail stores, online at www.officeworks.com.au, or by telephone/fax.

Officeworks aims to provide customers with the widest range of stationery, technology, furniture, and photo, print and copy services at the lowest prices, every day. The business also continually strives to provide great service to our customers whilst ensuring that we deliver a safe, rewarding and engaging place of work to our 5,400 team members.

The Officeworks portfolio also includes Harris Technology which caters predominantly for small-to-medium businesses and early adopters of technology. Harris Technology has call centre and internet operations with a small retail store presence across the nation.

Operating revenue for the office supplies businesses (Officeworks and Harris Technology) was $1.31 billion for the full year. Earnings before interest and tax were $65.3 million.

Officeworks’ commitment to environmental sustainability continued throughout 2008/09.

There were two sustainability initiatives of particular note during the year, one being the elimination of single-use plastic bags from the business, the second being Officeworks’ participation in the innovative e-waste recycling trial, Byteback. In conjunction with Sustainability Victoria, the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) and the Byteback Partners, stores in Ballarat and Dandenong in Victoria facilitated the free of charge computer take-back scheme for the public. This groundbreaking initiative resulted in over 42,639 kilograms of e-waste being recycled and diverted from landfill through our participating stores. Work to implement a similar scheme on a national basis is now underway.

During 2008/09, Officeworks supported the community in a variety of ways through direct donations and sponsorships in excess of $450,000. The beneficiaries included kindergartens, schools and various other not-for-profit organisations.

Whilst the total number of safety incidents decreased during 2008/09, there was an increase in the number of Lost Time Injuries. A dedicated manual handling initiative has been put in place to address the major cause of injury across the business, being soft tissue injuries resulting from manual handling events.

Our team member engagement activities during the year included special deals on laptop computers and coffee machines, picnic hampers and movie tickets for Christmas, Officeworks travel bags, and a range of other initiatives designed to make Officeworks a great place to work.

We also provided over 56,000 hours of facilitated and online training during the year.

On 1 December 2008, Officeworks ceased providing single-use plastic bags to customers and introduced reusable alternatives for sale. Almost $30,000 in proceeds from the sale of these reusable bags were donated to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy for the seven months to 30 June 2009.

During the year, Officeworks collected 422,422 print and toner cartridges as part of the Cartridges for Planet Ark campaign. This was achieved through continued in-store collection and an expansion of the programme which facilitated the collection of units from our delivery customers.

Officeworks welcomed some exciting new environmentally responsible additions to our range of products, particularly in furniture and desk accessories. For example, the Heritage range of office desks are manufactured from Forest Stewardship Council accredited materials whilst the Australian-made Italplast desk accessory range is made from recycled material, is 100 per cent recyclable and Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA) certified. The usb-powered Eco Button energy-saving device was also launched during the year.

Major community involvement activities during the year included:

• supporting the Whitlam Institute’s ‘What Matters?’ creative writing competition for students in years 5 to 12 in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory;
• working with our customers to contribute over $50,000 to the Returned and Services League and the ANZAC Day Commemorative Committee through the sale of fundraising merchandise in our stores;
• assisting the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation’s Early Learning and Preschool Literacy project through the donation of school supplies;
• celebrating the opening of each of our new Officeworks stores with a donation of $1,000 each to a local school and not-for-profit group; and
• contributing in excess of $250,000 to local communities through various donation and sponsorship activities organised through the national Officeworks store network.

During the year, eight new Officeworks stores were opened and seven Officeworks stores were totally upgraded. At year end, there were 123 Officeworks stores and five Harris Technology business centres operating across the country.

For further details on our sustainability performance please go to our website at www.officeworks.com.au