Staples aims to monetize its brand

Courtesy The company continues to diversify after a failed $6 billion merger with Office Depot.

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By Sam Bonacci

Framingham’s Staples is continuing to look for traction, and money, outside of its office-supply bubble, with the latest efforts focusing on partnering with companies to monetize its brand through a new licensing program.

Under Staples’ new licensing program, companies will be able to license the Staples trademark to launch Staples-branded offerings across various products and services, according to a release from the company.

“By working with other innovative companies offering business solutions we’re able to extend (our) brand to other product areas and introduce our customers to a whole new set of offerings,” Frank Bifulco, executive vice president of global marketing for Staples, said in a release.

The first agreement is with GRM Document Management for Staples Records and Cloud Management, a new records storage solution with a focus on security and compliance, according to Staples.

The move is just the latest strand in a wide net Staples has cast to find profits amid a failed merger attempt with Office Depot that cost the company $340 million. These efforts include a bid to grow its service-based offerings in store with services such as mobile phone repair, but also including less traditional partnerships such as a deal with Boston coworking space firm Workbar to put the flexible office spaces inside of Staples stores.