Corporate Express To Acquire Coastwide Laboratories

Business-to-business office products supplier Corporate Express Inc. has signed an agreement to acquire Coastwide Laboratories Inc., Corporate Express said yesterday.

Coastwide, based in Wilsonville, OR, is a Northwest distributor and manufacturer of facility and break room supplies, including a line of environmentally sound cleaning products under the Sustainable Earth label.

This acquisition expands Corporate Express' presence in the facilities market, a key product category in its offerings. Corporate Express, which had 2005 sales of approximately $4.6 billion in North America, is a division of Buhrmann NV, a global supplier of office products, paper and graphic systems for the business market.

Corporate Express has operations in Australia, Canada, France and other countries. Its North American operations include a catalog, a Web site, corporate express.com and 38 distribution centers.