Uncertain Fate of Naperville OfficeMax Headquarters Certainly Will Affect Jobs Here

It might seem a bit far from here, but there's little doubt the jobs of folks from Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles will be affected if OfficeMax's Naperville headquarters were to disappear.

After announcing merger plans earlier this year, OfficeMax has now officially merged with its competitor Office Depot, but the fate of the Naperville headquarters is unclear. 

One thing is certain, the OfficeMax name is no more. 

The two office supply retailers announced this week that the combined company will use the name Office Depot, Inc. as part of the $1.2 billion all-stock deal, according to Office Depot.

OfficeMax, based in Naperville, has roughly $7 billion in annual sales, 29,000 employees and about 900 stores in the U.S. and Mexico. Office Depot, based in Boca Raton, FL, has 1,675 stores world-wide, annual sales of some $11.5 billion and about 39,000 employees.

According to Crain's Chicago Business, the future of the OfficeMax headquarters is "up in the air."  

"Office Depot is the bigger company, which might signal something, but it's really very much up in the air," Liang Feng, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Chicago told Crain's.  "At the end of the day, both companies are going to take a look at which location is less disruptive, which location requires fewer people to move and which location might offer better incentives."

Along with its headquarters in Naperville, OfficeMax has one store location in the city at 790 Royal St. George Dr. Office Depot also has one locations in Naperville at 1363 Ridgeland Ave.

Office Depot CEO Neil Austrian and OfficeMax CEO Ravi Saligram will serve together as co-CEOs until a new CEO is selected "and a decision on a headquarters location is finalized," according to Office Depot.

Read more at Crain's Chicago Business