Rumors today that Sycamore will be shuttering Essendant's Office Products business? Any truth to the story? Announcement was supposed to be today but it was delayed per the report.
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@k95 Former Essendant AE here also let go last year. SP Richards is looking for CSRs and I believe they support remote/hybrid positions.
15-20 Customer Care Representatives have been let go as of today.
Essendant IS going out of Business. Make no mistake about that, once they complete shutting down Facilities and sorting and segregation of product to specific Warehouses they will sell off product and warehouses to highest takers. This company is so poorly run at this moment it would not surprise if Sycamore the Parent company pulls the plug at any time.
Essendant corporate leadership lacked vision and could not adapt the business to a changing consumer environment. Systems were cumbersome. A path of doing the same basic things only harder with the same basic tools added little. Pushing a commoditized product base to a declining market with overnight delivery proved a poor strategy. Attempts at changing the game through dabbling in 3PL arrived too little, too late and expertise in that arena was lacking. Essendant, once United Stationers, a former fortune 500 company gone private and later bought out by Sycamore Group, soon to join the dust bin of failed organizations.
@2az I believe the whole company will be gone 1st quarter of 2026
Poor CEO'S /management since 2009.They never should have merged Lagasse with United Stationers and make it like a " 1 stop shop".
A 100+ year old company which was brought in billion(s) per year destroyed in a few sweeps.
Now another big layoff since 2023
Sad..
@1c4 THE DOWNFALL is because of a former CEO.
OP is going to shift. The dealers that you're supporting are losing OP business every day. Amazon will continue to take the business. With so many 3rd party sellers, prices will continue to drop. What are these dealers suppose to do? Ask their customers to PAY MORE because of ...... not going to happen. They pulled the OP because they probably thought that in 5 years it'll be dead... or they think they can take that usage and turn it over to Staples (long shot).. This whole industry is old. Other than Jan San... Until Amazon gets into that.
The ransomware attack accelerated the death spiral of Essendant's office products business.
@pj Customers are not stupid. They have been pulling back since the outage and the rest are taking their business elsewhere.
@1c4 what did he do ? He is only here for 6 years
@nx The government has nothing to do with the failure, strictly on Tim E and the rest of the leadership team. They have been working the company into the ground for a long time.
@y4 They wasted too much money in the continuous improvement team with no effective results, while the accounting team was making large mistakes leading to fines from the IRS and not depreciating equipment for 10 years. There have been far too many problems with this company to pinpoint the root cause of the failure outside of upper management.
@174 oh, idk those of us who won't have a job? I didn't think it would come to this with Essendat, but here we are.
@146 Who cares ?
@11c Can SP Richards handle the Essendant volume that will shift?
@ts yea me too
Long time coming. The Office industry still runs as if its 1980s and before. The absolut crazy vendor back end programs demanded and the punitive actions if you try and rationalize the market with AMZ WMT etc can't survive trying to make as much profit in the buy side as sell side. The value proposition has been eroding for years and haven't seen any change in this industry.
@y4 that’s very clear from the beginning Sycamore acquired the Essendant , they want to support staples to grow in B2B , now that sycamore / staples have learned the business , they will try B2B from staples side, they are here for some quick cash with aggressive cost cutting plus layoffs asset selling , and sell remaining jansan and tools business to profitable investors. They never care to grow Essendant.
@ph as someone from inventory, a lot of us supply planners have been confused on why upper management would make such bad calls on almost everything. From issues with cybersecurity hack in 2023 to now, where POs would be cancelled by management when we couldn’t pay the bills, or we had system upgrades in the buying system that actually made things worse and not better. There are a lot of talented, good hearted people here esp in planning and middle management, but it seemed like upper managements goal was to never invest in fixing problems in the long term because I don’t think that’s in the interest of Sycamore Partners. Upper management was desperate to try and solve large issues with the process by overworking us instead of spending money to make sure the processes are efficient in the first place. Our systems are sh-t and we were already severely understaffed before the layoffs. I don’t see the company staying afloat even with these large changes because the company hasn’t fixed the root problems and will be outcompeted in the market
@ny - If they go under hope the pension that some old timers are eligible for still get paid out.
@ph
20 years of hard work and dedication gone down the drain
So what happens to all the house brand items eg. Universal?
It’s the right move. OP category deeply unprofitable. And all of these zero inventory sellers are the reason why. No skin in the game, who needs sustainable profit? $0.01 per order will do if it gets them closer to a rebate payout. Same thing will happen to remaining categories if current drop ship model continues.
@pd I was looking around the internet everywhere for this comment. It seems no one said anything to anyone about it. I googled and the only thing I have found are some of the WARN letters that have been filed. I wonder what the customers know and/or aren't aware of.
Inventory is run by clowns. They got rid of the people with the most experience in Jansan and Food service. People with 15-20+ years of dedication and loyalty that knew the business front and back. They cut the severance in half just hours before laying off. They treated these employees like dirt and just cut them off without warning. It's shameful and unethical. They can't pay the bills and vendors are refusing to ship orders. The employees still there are on borrowed time. Bankruptcy is in the future.
The customer letter does not mention the closing of numerous DCs. Total misinformation as customers think their Jan San products and delivery will not be affected.
@OP Organizational Update
Dear Valued Customer,
At Essendant, we value your partnership and are committed to ensuring your success. We are reaching out today to share an important update about the future direction of Essendant.
As part of our long-term strategy, to optimize operations and strengthen our service, we have made the strategic decision to exit the Office Product (OP) dealer channel. This decision reflects our commitment to strengthen our teams, optimize our operations and deliver exceptional service to our customers.
We see tremendous opportunity in JanSan, Foodservice and Technology along with select other strategic channels and believe this focus positions us to better serve your evolving needs, not only today but into the future as well. By aligning our resources, we can deepen our expertise, accelerate innovation, and continue delivering the exceptional value and service you expect from us.
This decision reflects our confidence in a strong and sustainable future for Essendant. We will be better able to concentrate our efforts, better equipped to innovate, expand our capabilities, and further strengthen our position in the market.
We value the trust you place in us and are committed to being your preferred supplier. If you have any questions, we are here to help and provide additional information.
We appreciate your partnership and look forward to continuing to serve you through our sharpened focus.
Dave Rickard
CEO
.
@cj Organizational Update
Dear Valued Customer,
At Essendant, we value your partnership and are committed to ensuring your success. We are reaching out today to share an important update about the future direction of Essendant.
As part of our long-term strategy, to optimize operations and strengthen our service, we have made the strategic decision to exit the Office Product (OP) dealer channel. This decision reflects our commitment to strengthen our teams, optimize our operations and deliver exceptional service to our customers.
We see tremendous opportunity in JanSan, Foodservice and Technology along with select other strategic channels and believe this focus positions us to better serve your evolving needs, not only today but into the future as well. By aligning our resources, we can deepen our expertise, accelerate innovation, and continue delivering the exceptional value and service you expect from us.
This decision reflects our confidence in a strong and sustainable future for Essendant. We will be better able to concentrate our efforts, better equipped to innovate, expand our capabilities, and further strengthen our position in the market.
We value the trust you place in us and are committed to being your preferred supplier. If you have any questions, we are here to help and provide additional information.
We appreciate your partnership and look forward to continuing to serve you through our sharpened focus.
Dave Rickard
CEO
.
@dg Organizational Update
Dear Valued Customer,
At Essendant, we value your partnership and are committed to ensuring your success. We are reaching out today to share an important update about the future direction of Essendant.
As part of our long-term strategy, to optimize operations and strengthen our service, we have made the strategic decision to exit the Office Product (OP) dealer channel. This decision reflects our commitment to strengthen our teams, optimize our operations and deliver exceptional service to our customers.
We see tremendous opportunity in JanSan, Foodservice and Technology along with select other strategic channels and believe this focus positions us to better serve your evolving needs, not only today but into the future as well. By aligning our resources, we can deepen our expertise, accelerate innovation, and continue delivering the exceptional value and service you expect from us.
This decision reflects our confidence in a strong and sustainable future for Essendant. We will be better able to concentrate our efforts, better equipped to innovate, expand our capabilities, and further strengthen our position in the market.
We value the trust you place in us and are committed to being your preferred supplier. If you have any questions, we are here to help and provide additional information.
We appreciate your partnership and look forward to continuing to serve you through our sharpened focus.
Dave Rickard
CEO
.
@eb I think they are going under slowly!!
@fs so the fire wall with Staples is officially gone the plan worked as expected to avoid antitrust, conflict of interests and monopoly complications that were raised when Staples devoured Essendant. Another example of a failing government caving to big money. Sorry for our kids.
@ea what does that mean
They announced it today to the associates. 2/3 of employees gone in next 3 months sold off OP to SP Richards
I work for OP dealer.. We got an email from Essendant.. They are getting of the OP dealer sales. I assume Staples will still sell office supplies since they own Essendant. Just not their competition.
I’m hiring experienced toner reps. 50-50 split. Scottpoli@aol.com. Or if you know someone. Work from home.
Confirmed, today or was announced. Only the 6 main DCs are staying open. I think it's a smart move. It was a non-profitable sector with a downward trajectory but the remaining categories have huge growth potential and when the firewall term ends, staples will be able to leverage Essendant as it's main distribution arm.
yes we were told we are shutting by nov 7
no mention of severence though.
Yes this occurred today and was a shocker. They reduced there severance from 16 weeks to 8 weeks today just before laying off 2/3 of the company.
Hello all, I can confirm this as I was just laid off from OP team at the FSC. Had a town hall meeting earlier and at least 10 facilities are being closed completely, several more are being transitioned to focus on JanSan, Tech, Digital Services, Food, etc. Office Products will still be sold but a limited amount of items will be kept on for the ones that are necessary. All OP suppliers have been notified today or possibly later this week that Essendant is no longer doing business with them. It was kind of a shock to hear this but close to half of the business is being cut in order for the organization to catch up on finances. I don’t have high hopes that this change is gonna make a big enough difference since the company is on the downslide but that’s just my two cents.