I spoke with United Stationers President and CEO Dick Gochnauer the other day about the master distributor’s decision to purchase Denver-based software company MBS Dev. (Read the article based on that interview here: Why United Stationers Bought a Software Company.)

United Stationers (NASDAQ: USTR) is working with its customers – resellers of office, jan-san and breakroom products – to optimize their online storefronts and electronic business capabilities. In particular, Gochnauer told me the company is capitalizing on a growing trend among office supplies distributors to be a one-stop shopping opportunity for their customers.

\”As you create these Internet store fronts, customers are more likely to do one-stop shopping. They tend to buy across categories,\” he says. \”We are seeing today a blurring of channels. Customers are increasingly ordering products that might have traditionally been a jan-san or breakroom product distributor’s area of expertise. But they are now buying that from office products resellers. The fastest-growing component in the office supplies industry is the jan-san and breakroom supplies.\”

This gives office supplies distributors an opportunity to grow their businesses by growing spend at individual customers – at a time when their customers are shrinking.

United Stationers’ Web site features the OfficeJan Resource Center, focused on product information on cleaning, breakroom and safety supplies for the office products distributor.

United Stationers also owns ORS Nasco, which sells industrial supplies.

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