Staples Profit Falls 33 Percent In 1st Quarter

Still, not all the news was good for the world's largest office supply retailer.

Profit at the Framingham, Mass.-based retailer fell by one-third, and customers — particularly big corporations, where layoffs are ongoing and fewer employees means less need for office supplies — ordered less merchandise and spent less money on each order. They also continued to shy away from buying expensive items like office furniture and printers.

For the three months that ended May 2, Staples earned $143 million, or 20 cents per share. That's down from the previous year's profit of $212.3 million, or 30 cents per share.

Excluding one-time items related to last summer's acquisition of Dutch office-supply company Corporate Express NV, the retailer's profit in the latest quarter was 22 cents per share, down about 27 percent.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected Staples to earn 21 cents per share. Those estimates typically exclude one-time costs.

Sales, meanwhile, grew 19 percent to $5.82 billion from $4.88 billion, helped by the Corporate Express business. Analysts predicted revenue of $5.85 billion.