Office Depot, a global provider of office related products, services, and solutions, announced plans to shut down up to 400 of its stores by the end of 2016, with 150 stores scheduled to be closed this year.

Office Depot Chairman and CEO Roland Smith the closure of the 400 stores in North America will give the company US $75 million more in annual savings starting next year.

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The decision to close up to 400 stores came following the company's merger with OfficeMax, an American office supplies retailer. The merger reportedly caused retail locations to overlap, thus the need to consolidate. Office Depot currently has more than 2,000 stores around the world. 

The merger of the two office supplies giant created what a company with combined annual sales of US $17 billion and total employees of 66,000 people.

A total of 150 Office Depot stores will be closed in the fourth quarter of this year while the remaining closures is set to take effect by the end of next year, said Smith.

Smith said the shutting down of at least 400 stores is part of the company's unique selling proposition for this year. It also keeps in line with Office Depot's aim to further improve its store footprint in North America and ensure that the stores are positioned very well in the markets.

The fate of the employees of the 400 stores has not been known yet and the locations of the stores that will be closed have also not been disclosed by the company as of this writing.

In the first three months of this year, Office Depot said it suffered an operating loss of US $79 million in. It also announced a net loss of US $109 million to common stock holders.

TagsOffice Depot, Office Depot Closing, Office Depot Closing Stores, Office Depot Stores