Office Depot UK Owner Loses £50m, Blames Work-From-Home.
OT Group, the parent company of Office Depot and the Spicers wholesale brand, suffered a loss of over £50 million in the year before announcing its exit from the UK market, largely due to the shift towards remote working.
The Greater Manchester-based company reported a pre-tax loss of £52.5 million for 2023, following a £15.8 million loss in 2022. Its latest financial statements, filed with Companies House, also show a decline in turnover from £120.8 million to £109.8 million during the same period.
OT Group’s last reported profit was £10.1 million in 2020, and the company posted a £5.3 million loss in 2021. These latest figures come after the announcement in August that the group intends to exit the UK and Ireland entirely.
In a statement, OT Group cited a “sustained period of difficult trading conditions,” attributing its struggles to a decline in demand for office supplies driven by remote working trends and low office occupancy rates, which have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. The company also expressed concerns about the oversupply of warehousing and distribution facilities in the UK office supplies market, describing the situation as unsustainable.
As part of its restructuring, OT Group confirmed plans to sell its UK and Ireland Office Depot businesses to PCC Global, as well as its OfficeTeam division and the assets of Vow Wholesale in these regions. The company’s workforce also shrank during 2023, with employee numbers falling from 553 to 529.
