photo credit: APWU

Staples shares plunged more than 10% following a disappointing earnings report Tuesday.

Profits for Staples in the first quarter plummeted 43.5% — far short of expectations — and revenue fell 2.8%.

The office supply chain’s drop is the latest example of the company’s struggle to compete against Amazon and other e-commerce giants.

“When you’re trying to take a company the size of Staples, which had a very strong retail legacy and move it into more of an online company, there’s going to be a lot of changes and it’s going to be hard to predict exactly when you can get back to historical margins,” said CEO Ron Sargent during a conference call following the earnings report.

Sargent noted that the number of customers visiting its stores fell slightly, but that online sales were up 6%. Still, he didn’t say exactly how much money Staples gets from its online retail site.
Staples plummets on weak sales