FedEx Office
Encyclopedia
The UPS Store
The UPS Store is a subsidiary of UPS, with locations in the United States and Canada. Each store offers shipping, postal, online printing, and other business services. In the United States, each store is independently owned and operated by a licensed franchisee of Mail Boxes Etc., Inc...
, all FedEx Office stores are corporate-owned.
Besides traditional full-service copy and print shop services, all stores also provide a number of self-service features: color and monochrome photocopiers, fax machines, digital photo printer kiosks, and several desktop computer rentals, of which one always has an image scanner
Image scanner
In computing, an image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object, and converts it to a digital image. Common examples found in offices are variations of the desktop scanner where the document is placed on a glass...
and some design software (mainly Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
applications) installed. The computers available for rental are connected to at least one color and one monochrome laser printer (some newer stores have only a color printer but charge less for monochrome prints). The stores also offer a selection of office supplies
Office supplies
Office supplies is the generic term that refers to all supplies regularly used in offices by businesses and other organizations, from private citizens to governments, who work with the collection, refinement, and output of information .The term includes small, expendable, daily use items such as...
and business books for retail purchase.
The company's primary clientele consists of small business and home office clients. There are more than 1800 centers in Asia, Europe, and North America. With over $2 billion in revenues, the company is the 7th largest printing
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
company
Company
A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...
in North America.
The company was founded as Kinko's in 1970 by Paul Orfalea
Paul Orfalea
Paul Orfalea , nicknamed "Kinko" because of his curly red hair, founded the copy-chain Kinko's. His father descends from Urfa.Orfalea was born in Los Angeles, California to parents of Lebanese descent...
, whose nickname was "Kinko" because of his kinky (curly) hair. Its first copy shop—which Orfalea legendarily opened with a single sidewalk copy machine—was in the college community of Isla Vista next to the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
. 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 three years earlier.
As Orfalea later disclosed in his autobiography, it took an enormous amount of work by a small army of lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
s at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is a global law firm, founded in Los Angeles in 1890. The firm is one of the most prestigious and selective in the nation, and ranks among the most successful firms globally. Gibson Dunn has nearly 1,000 attorneys and over 2,000 staff located in 17 offices around the world,...
to disentangle him from Kinko's. The problem was that rather than adopt the traditional franchising
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
model (by which the promoter creates a corporation that sells franchises), he had built the company as a series of loosely connected personal partnerships between each store owner and himself. By 1997, there were over 127 Kinko's partnerships in existence. All of them had to be carefully dismantled and rolled into a single S corporation
S Corporation
An S corporation, for United States federal income tax purposes, is a corporation that makes a valid election to be taxed under Subchapter S of Chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code....
in order to convert the company to a more centralized corporate-owned business model. Orfalea and several other key partners decided to go that route because they believed it would make the company more efficient (he was wasting too much time mediating disputes between different factions of Kinko's partnerships), and would enable the oldest partners, including himself, to cash out smoothly and engineer a transition of the company to a new generation of managers. Unfortunately, the new structure also made it easier for CDR to gradually force him out of his own company.
Kinko's corporate headquarters was based in Ventura, California
Ventura, California
Ventura is the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States, incorporated in 1866. The population was 106,433 at the 2010 census, up from 100,916 at the 2000 census. Ventura is accessible via U.S...
for many years, but in 2002, the company relocated to Galleria Tower
Galleria Dallas
The Galleria Dallas, an upscale shopping mall and mixed-use development located in north Dallas, Texas , was developed by long time owner Hines Interests in 1982. The mall is modeled after a similar Hines development, the Houston Galleria, which opened in 1970...
in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
.
In February 2004 Kinko's was bought by FedEx
FedEx
FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States with headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee...
for $2.4 billion and then became known as FedEx Kinko's Office and Print Centers. Currently, Brian Phillips is the President and Chief Executive Officer, following Ken May
Ken May
Kenneth A. May is a Memphis, Tennessee native, former CEO of FedEx Office, and chairman of the March of Dimes' board of trustees.-Personal life:...
's departure on March 7, 2008.
Locations of FedEx Office centers currently include Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
, United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and the United States of America. Kinko's formerly operated in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
but withdrew from those markets in late 2008 due to low consumer demand for Kinko's services.
FedEx Office's primary competitors in the crowded North American market include The UPS Store
The UPS Store
The UPS Store is a subsidiary of UPS, with locations in the United States and Canada. Each store offers shipping, postal, online printing, and other business services. In the United States, each store is independently owned and operated by a licensed franchisee of Mail Boxes Etc., Inc...
, OfficeMax
OfficeMax
OfficeMax , is an American office supplies retailer that was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Naperville, Illinois.-History:On April 1, 1988, OfficeMax was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, by Bob Hurwitz and Michael Feuer. Hurwitz served as executive chairman and chief executive officer and Feuer...
, AlphaGraphics
AlphaGraphics
AlphaGraphics is a franchised chain of more than 260 independently owned and operated full-service print shops.AlphaGraphics business centers are franchised by AlphaGraphics, Inc., part of the UK-based Pindar Group. AlphaGraphics was founded by entrepreneur Rodger Ford in Tucson, Arizona, in 1969,...
, Staples, Sir Speedy
Sir Speedy
Sir Speedy is a printing, copying, and document management company headquartered in Mission Viejo, California, United States. Founded in 1968, the company has over 1,000 franchises in 26 countries...
, and VistaPrint
VistaPrint
Vistaprint is a large online supplier of printed and promotional materials as well as marketing services to micro businesses and consumers. In the 26th annual Graphic Arts Monthly 101 listing, the company is the 40th largest and the 4th fastest growing printing company in North America...
.
On June 2, 2008, FedEx announced that they were rebranding FedEx Kinko's as FedEx Office, the retail branch of the FedEx Corporation. As of Spring 2010, some stores and branding still show FedEx Kinko's. FedEx Office offers the same services that FedEx Kinko's Office and Print Center locations did previously, with some small exceptions. To ease customer confusion during the transition period, many stores have a large purple sign in the window that says "Kinko's Inside."
Prior to the acquisition by FedEx, most Kinko's stores were open 24 hours a day. After the acquisition, FedEx reduced the hours for many locations.