PRIVATE EQUITY OWNED
Staples
Includes Staples Office Supply
office supplies · Framingham, MA
- PE Firm
- Sycamore Partners →
- Year Acquired
- 2017
Sycamore bought it for $6.9B, paid itself a $1 billion dividend, then closed a third of the stores.
What They Did
- Sycamore Partners paid itself a $1B dividend in 2019 — recouping ~80% of initial equity while pushing total debt past $5.3B
- Shrank the US store base by roughly a third since the 2017 buyout — from about 1,250 stores to 916 by early 2026 — with closures still rolling
- Racked up eight wage-and-hour and health-and-safety violations under PE ownership
- Shifted strategy away from retail consumers toward B2B, abandoning the customers who built the brand
Since the Acquisition
- Over 100 stores closed — small businesses and home offices that depended on a nearby Staples for same-day supplies lost their closest option
- In-store product selection gutted as Sycamore pivoted to B2B; retail customers increasingly find bare shelves and limited inventory
- Print and copy center staffing reduced to the point where wait times for basic services stretched to hours at many locations
- Remaining stores feel like afterthoughts — understaffed, poorly stocked, and clearly deprioritized in favor of corporate accounts
Sources
- Sycamore's Strategy Has Hurt Workers — PESP(2021-09-14)
- Sycamore set to take $1B out of Staples — PitchBook(2019-03-22)
- Staples is selling itself for a fraction of former value — CNN (archived)(2017-06-29)
- Sycamore Partners closes Walgreens acquisition, splits retailer into 5 companies — Retail Dive ('Staples U.S. Retail, a Sycamore portfolio company')(2025-09-02)