FedEx Office
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| FedEx Office | |
|---|---|
| Type | Subsidiary |
| Founded | 1970 |
| Headquarters | Dallas, Texas |
| Key people | Brian Phillips, Acting CEO |
| Industry | Office services |
| Products | Photocopying, printing, shipping |
| Employees | 19,000 (2006) |
| Parent | FedEx Corporation |
| Website | FedEx Office Homepage |
FedEx Office is a chain of stores that provide printing, copying, and binding services. Many stores also provide video conferencing facilities. The primary clientele consists of small business and home office clients. There are more than 1400 centers in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.
The company was founded as Kinko's in 1970 by Paul Orfalea, whose nickname was "Kinko" because of his kinky (curly) hair. The original copy shop was founded in the college community of Isla Vista next to the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He left the company in 2000, following a dispute with the investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, to which he had sold a large stake in the company a few years earlier.
Kinko's established its corporate headquarters in Ventura, California, but in 2002, the company relocated to Galleria Tower in Dallas, Texas.
In February 2004 Kinko's was bought by FedEx for $2.4 billion and is now known as FedEx Kinko's Office and Print Centers. Currently, Brian Phillips is the acting President and Chief Executive Officer, following Ken May's departure on March 7, 2008. On June 2, 2008, the first business day of its fiscal year 2009, the company announced that it would take a charge of nearly 700 million dollars to change the chain's name to FedEx Office. [1] [2]
Locations of FedEx Office include Australia, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Mexico, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
FedEx Office primary competitors include The UPS Store, OfficeMax, AlphaGraphics, Staples, and Sir Speedy.
Contents |
[edit] Services
FedEx Kinko's offers a wide variety of production and finishing services, as well as FedEx shipping; however they're most well known for making photocopies. As of April 2008, the price of a black-and-white copy is 10¢ in metro area markets, and color copies cost 59¢. Most centers have three distinct sections: self-service, shipping, and production.
FedEx Kinko's also offers signs and banners. The prices vary by material and square footage, from bond paper to cut vinyl to full-color outdoor banners. Signs are available in Black & White or Color.
Direct mail is a new focus of the company, offering customers the ability to print and mail advertisements directly to potential sales through a partnership with the USPS.
Another new business service added to the FedEx Kinko's line-up are notaries public.
[edit] Trivia
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- When Kinko's attempted to expand to Tucson, Arizona, it discovered that there already was an independent copy shop there named Kinko's, which had been founded in the early 1970s under an earlier agreement to allow use of the Kinko's name. Rodger Ford, founder of AlphaGraphics, purchased the Kinko's franchise for the Tucson area and used the name "Zudo's" on his stores in order to isolate the Kinko's brand from AlphaGraphics' geographic stronghold. This situation continued until the 1990s when Ford's franchise expired and Kinko's refused to extend the franchise under the previous terms.
- The Hawaii expansion of Kinko's was likewise made difficult by the presence of an existing copy shop in Puck's Alley. The name in this case was licensed years before from Kinko's. Until the mid-1990's when the name was repurchased, Kinko's stores in Honolulu were known as Ditto's. The South Beretania branch of Ditto's was located within a block of Kinko's location.
- It is often mistakenly assumed that Kinko's is named after the Japanese word for vault, 'Kinko'.[1]
- In January 2006 Persuasive Games released a video game parody of a Fedex Kinko's store. "Disaffected! puts the player in the role of employees forced to service customers under the particular incompetences common to a Kinko’s store."
- In February 2006, Strom Carlson discovered a security flaw in Kinko's ExpressPay stored-value smart card system. This flaw allows an attacker to adjust the value on an ExpressPay card which can then be used for theft of items such as making copies, computer rental time, or redeemed for cash.
- As of June 2008 Fedex will begin branding the fedex kinko's print locations with the new "fedex office" name. Fedex Kinko's name will be discontinued.
